DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, Anderson County was carved out in 1846, and the folks who came to settle it brought their roots with them — most of them straight out of the Southern states. So by the time the question of secession was on the table, you could say the county already knew which way it was leaning.
When Texas became the seventh state to secede from the Union on March 2, 1861, Anderson County made its feelings known in no uncertain terms. The vote was 870 to 15. Eight hundred and seventy to fifteen.
That's not a close race, friends. That's a landslide wrapped in a thunderstorm. Before that vote was cast, though, there was one man who stood up and said wait.
Governor Sam Houston himself came to Palestine and spoke against secession — right there on the steps of the Osceola Hotel. Now the marker doesn't tell us how the crowd received him, so I won't pretend to know. But the vote tells you something.
Among Anderson County's notable citizens, John H. Reagan, A.T. Rainey, S.G.
Stewart, and T.J. Word all served as delegates to the Secession Convention in Austin. And when the Texas Ordinance of Secession was put to paper, it was Rainey and Reagan who signed it.
Reagan would go on to carry one of the heaviest loads in the entire Confederacy — serving as postmaster general and later as treasury secretary of the government at Richmond. And at the close of the war, he and Confederate president Jefferson Davis were captured together. Think on that for a moment.
The man who helped start it was there at the very end of it. Back home, more than eleven hundred Anderson countians helped form twelve infantry and cavalry companies for the Confederate army — seven of those companies made up entirely of local men. Sons, brothers, neighbors.
And more than three hundred of them never came home. They are buried at battlefields stretching all the way from New Mexico to Pennsylvania. That's a wide arc of grief for one county to carry.
But the people left behind didn't sit still. Factories near Mound Prairie and Plenitude were running hard — turning out flour, cloth, rifles, ammunition, tin goods, shoes, harnesses, bridles, and other leather goods. Salt works west of Palestine were keeping food and meat preserved.
And the ladies of Anderson County — they were knittin' socks, knittin' blankets, sewin' shirts and trousers, sending everything they could toward the front. The Hunter Hotel in town was pressed into service as a makeshift hospital. In May of 1862, it hosted men of the 10th Texas Infantry.
Nine of those men ultimately succumbed to their wounds and illnesses and were buried in the Old City Cemetery. Nine men who came through those doors and never left the county. Today, Anderson County is the final resting place of more than five hundred veterans from all across the South.
And it is the present home of thousands of descendants of those veterans. The war ended a long time ago, but Anderson County is still living with it — in its cemeteries, in its bloodlines, in the very shape of the place. That's not nothing.
That's history with roots that run deep.
What the marker says
After the creation of Anderson County in 1846, most settlers came from Southern states, shaping the county's destiny in the Civil War. When Texas became the seventh state to secede from the Union on March 2, 1861, the county vote, 870 to 15, was overwhelmingly in favor of secession. Notable citizens John H. Reagan, A.T. Rainey, S.G. Stewart and T.J. Word were delegates to the Secession Convention in Austin, and Rainey and Reagan signed the Texas Ordinance of Secession. Before the vote, Governor Sam Houston spoke against secession on the steps of the Osceola Hotel in Palestine. More than 1,100 Anderson countians helped form twelve infantry and cavalry companies for the Confederate army, including seven companies entirely of local men. More than 300 died in the war and are buried at famed battlefields from New Mexico to Pennsylvania. Those on the home front contributed greatly to the war effort. Factories near Mound Prairie and Plenitude produced flour, cloth, rifles, ammunition, tin goods, shoes, harnesses, bridles and other leather goods. The salt works west of Palestine filled a need for food and meat preservation. Ladies knitted socks and blankets and sewed shirts and trousers bound for the war front. The Hunter Hotel served as a makeshift hospital, hosting men of the 10th Texas Infantry in May 1862; nine of them ultimately succumbed to their wounds and illnesses and were buried in the Old City Cemetery. Several citizens served leading roles in the Confederacy, including Reagan, who was postmaster general and treasury secretary of the government at Richmond. He and Confederate president Jefferson Davis were captured together at the close of the war. Anderson County is the final resting place of more than 500 veterans from all across the South, and the present home of thousands of descendants of those veterans. (2012)