DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just the one passing it along. There's a grave out in Travis County, and the stone above it carries a life that moved — fast and far and hard. Captain Chauncey Johnson.
Born in Burlington, Vermont, on May 1, 1798. Vermont. About as far from Texas as a man can get and still be on the same continent.
He served in the War of 1812. So by the time he finally made his way to Texas in 1840, he was no stranger to the idea that history has a way of finding you whether you go looking for it or not. And find him it did.
September 11, 1842. San Antonio. General Adrian Woll — a Mexican general — swept into the city and captured Captain Johnson along with others.
Just like that, a man who had already survived one war found himself a prisoner again, this time marched deep into Mexico and imprisoned there. The marker doesn't dwell on what that imprisonment was like, and maybe that's fitting. Some things don't need elaboration.
What we know is this: he came back. He made it to Bastrop, Texas. And there, on May 10, 1854, Captain Chauncey Johnson died.
The marker names Mrs. Johnson too — says they sleep here together — though it gives her no birth year, no origin, no separate story of her own. Just her place beside him.
Sometimes that's all a stone has room for. The State of Texas erected this marker in 1936, making sure two names from Burlington and beyond don't simply disappear into the grass. Vermont to Texas.
One war fought, another ambush survived, and a long road to Bastrop. That's the Captain's story, and now you've got it too.
What the marker says
Here Sleep Capt. and Mrs. Chauncey Johnson Capt. Johnson was born in Burlington, Vermont May 1, 1798 Served in the War of 1812 Came to Texas in 1840 Captured by General Adrian Woll At San Antonio, September 11, 1842 and imprisoned in Mexico Died at Bastrop, Texas May 10, 1854 Erected by the State of Texas 1936