DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Agapito De Leon. Born in Texas, 1808, the fourth son of empresario Don Martin De Leon — founder of the De Leon Colony and the city of Victoria.
Now that right there is a name that carried weight in this part of the country, and Agapito was raised to carry it. He was active in the colony's affairs, deep in the life of the community his father had built. When the War for Independence from Mexico came calling, he answered as a Texas patriot.
He was also known as a skilled Indian fighter, and he worked in cattle, horses, and mules — the kind of man who kept a colony running, the kind of man who knew this land and what it demanded. You'd think a man like that, a man who'd fought for Texas, who'd helped build something real out of this raw country, would see some peace on the other side of that war. He did not.
After the close of the War for Independence, a man named Mabry Gray — they called him Mustang Gray — was leading a gang that was systematically robbing Texans of Mexican descent. Systematically. That word in the marker doesn't let you look away.
This wasn't random. It was organized. It was deliberate.
And Agapito De Leon, son of the man who founded Victoria, Texas patriot, was assassinated by Mustang Gray. Eighteen thirty-six. He was twenty-eight years old — no, I'm not going to do that math for you, the years speak for themselves: 1808 to 1836.
What I will say is this — the marker doesn't let Mabry Gray off easy, and neither will I. The man who killed Agapito De Leon wasn't some frontier outlaw acting alone in chaos. He was a leader of a gang preying on a specific people.
That's the story the marker is telling, and it's a hard one. Victoria remembers Agapito De Leon. Fourth son, Texas patriot, and a man whose end says as much about the dangers that followed the revolution as the revolution itself.
What the marker says
(1808-1836) Born in Texas; fourth son of empresario Don Martin De Leon, founder of De Leon Colony and city of Victoria. Agapito De Leon was active in the colony's affairs, a Texas patriot during the War for Independence from Mexico, a skilled Indian fighter, engaged in cattle, horse, and mule business. He was assassinated by Mabry ("Mustang") Gray, leader of a gang systematically robbing Texans of Mexican descent, after close of War for Independence. Recorded - 1972