DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Archelaus Bynum Dodson, and friends, this one is worth every mile of road between you and that cemetery a half-mile south. December 31, 1807 — that's when Archelaus Bynum Dodson came into the world in North Carolina. He wouldn't stay there long.
In 1827, the Dodson family packed up and came to Texas, and from that point forward, Archelaus Bynum Dodson's life would be threaded through nearly every chapter of Texas becoming Texas. He was sharp and civic-minded from early on. In 1832, he served as a delegate to the Convention seeking governmental reforms.
A man who shows up to a convention like that is a man who understands that history doesn't just happen to you — sometimes you have to go sit down with it and argue it out. Then comes May 17, 1835. Dodson married Sarah Rudolph Bradley, and if you think that's just a footnote, you have another think coming.
Later that same year of 1835, Dodson was serving as first lieutenant in a Texas defense unit under Captain Andrew Robinson. Now — here is the moment. His bride, Sarah, she had been busy.
She put her hands and her skill and her vision to work, and she presented to Robinson's company a flag. Red, white, and blue. A flag of Texas.
That banner, her handiwork, flew at Washington-on-the-Brazos when the Declaration of Independence was signed on March 2, 1836. Let that sit with you. The flag that flew over the birth of the Texas Republic was sewn by a newlywed woman named Sarah Dodson, and her husband was standing in the thick of it.
Archelaus didn't stop there. He kept fighting through the Texas Revolution, all the way past the victory at San Jacinto. When the smoke cleared, he located his headright of land in Grimes County, and in 1844, he moved his family there.
But the story carries sorrow too. Sarah Bradley Dodson — flag maker, mother of six children — died in 1848. She is buried in Bethel Cemetery, near Bedias, in Grimes County.
She made the flag that flew over a nation's founding, and she deserves to be remembered by name every time that flag is mentioned. Dodson went on. In 1850, he married Louisa McWhorter, a widow.
And in 1860, he moved his family west again, to another Texas frontier, settling on the Nueces River. This is the country where he spent his last decades, living, as the marker says, to a respected old age. Archelaus Bynum Dodson died on March 10, 1898, and he was buried in Collins Cemetery — a half-mile south of where this marker stands.
Born in 1807, still on Texas soil in 1898, present at the Revolution, married to the woman who made the flag, fought at San Jacinto, and finally laid to rest on the Nueces frontier. Some lives are so full they seem like they ought to belong to three men. This one belonged to one.
What the marker says
(December 31, 1807-March 10, 1898) Texas patriot famed as man who introduced the Lone Star flag during the Texas Revolution. Born in North Carolina, Dodson came to Texas with his parents in 1827. He served as a delegate to the 1832 Convention seeking governmental reforms. On May 17, 1835, he married Sarah Rudolph Bradley. Later in the year 1835, Dodson was first lieutenant in Texas defense unit under Capt. Andrew Robinson. To Robinson's company his bride presented her handiwork-- a red, white and blue flag of Texas. This banner flew at Washington-on the-Brazos when Declaration of Independence was signed March 2, 1836. Dodson continued to fight in the Texas Revolution until after victory at San Jacinto. He located his headright of land in Grimes County, moving family there in 1844. Mrs. Sarah Bradley Dodson, flag maker and mother of six children, died in 1848. Her grave is in Bethel Cemetery, near Bedias, Grimes County. Dodson in 1850 married Louisa McWhorter, a widow. In 1860 he moved his family west to another Texas frontier, on the Nueces River. In this vicinity he lived to a respected old age. At death he was buried in Collins Cemetery, a half-mile south of here. (1969)