Casbeer, Joseph L.

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll give it to you straight from the stone. Now, every now and then you come across a man whose whole life fits on a small plaque, and yet somehow, if you listen close, that life is bigger than the plaque can hold. Joseph L.

Casbeer was one of those men. Born in Lamar County, Texas, he came up in a time when the whole country was fixing to tear itself apart. And when it did, Joseph went to war.

He served in Company G, under Colonel R. T. P.

Allen's Texas Infantry, and he was discharged in 1865. Just like that, the war was done, and Joseph Casbeer was still standing. Now that right there is its own kind of story.

Then six years pass. The world is stitching itself back together, piece by piece, and on September 5, 1871, Joseph L. Casbeer rides into Lampasas County and marries Miss Matilda Peacock.

They build a life. Two sons come along. The family grows roots.

And then, in 1898, Joseph and Matilda and everything they'd built together make one more move. They come to Ozona, out here in Crockett County. A Confederate veteran, a husband, a father, a man who crossed the whole arc of a century's worth of Texas.

He made it to Ozona, and Ozona remembered him.

What the marker says

A Confederate veteran. Born in Lamar County. In Civil War, was in Co. G, Col. R.T.P. Allen's Texas Infantry, and was discharged in 1865. On September 5, 1871, married Miss Matilda Peacock, in Lampasas County. They had 2 sons. Moved to Ozona in 1898. Recorded - 1970.