Colonel Robert M. Coleman

Duane's take

The State of Texas put this one to words, and I'm just here to carry it down the road for you. Now, some men leave a mark on a place so deep you can still feel it long after they're gone. Colonel Robert M.

Coleman was that kind of man. Born in Kentucky in 1799, he made his way to Texas at a time when Texas was still a fight waiting to happen — and when the fight came, Coleman was right in the middle of it. He signed the Texas Declaration of Independence.

Let that settle a moment. His name is on the document that said, plain and bold, we are a free people. That alone would be enough for most men's legacies.

But Coleman wasn't finished. When General Sam Houston needed men he could trust at San Jacinto, Coleman was there — serving as aide-de-camp, right at Houston's side, on the day that changed everything. And if that still weren't enough, he went on to command the first regiment of Texas Rangers.

The first. Whatever the Rangers became, whatever stories got told around fires like this one, Robert M. Coleman was there at the beginning of it.

Signer. Aide-de-camp. Colonel of Rangers.

The man had done more than most could dream of. And then, in July of 1837, at the mouth of the Brazos River, Colonel Robert M. Coleman drowned.

The Brazos didn't care about declarations or battles or rangers. It just took him. The State of Texas erected this marker in his memory, because some names deserve to be said out loud — and his is one of them.

What the marker says

Erected by the State of Texas In Memory of Colonel Robert M. Coleman Signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence Aide-de-camp to General Sam Houston at San Jacinto Colonel of the first regiment of Texas Rangers Born in Kentucky in 1799 Drowned at the mouth of the Brazos in July 1837