UPTON, JOHN CUNNINGHAM (1828-1862). John Cunningham Upton, settler and soldier, was born on a farm near Winchester, Franklin County, Tennessee, on January 22, 1828. He went to California in 1850 and in 1859 moved to Fayette County, Texas, where he took charge of his mother's plantation. In 1861 he raised a company that was attached to Hood's Texas Brigade. Upton rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel; he was killed in the second battle of Manassas on August 30, 1862. A West Texas county, established in 1887, was named in honor of Upton and his brother, William Felton Upton.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Biographical Encyclopedia of Texas (New York: Southern, 1880). Zachary T. Fulmore, History and Geography of Texas As Told in County Names (Austin: Steck, 1915; facsimile, 1935).