DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, out here in Gonzales County. Now settle in, because this one's got a Connecticut Yankee, a republic's worth of land, and one of the most notorious gunmen Texas ever produced — all tied to the same patch of ground. The community of Pilgrim takes its name from Thomas J.
Pilgrim, born in 1804 up in Connecticut, about as far from the Texas frontier as a man can get without falling into the Atlantic. But in 1828, he came to Texas, and he wasted no time making himself useful. By 1829 — just one year after arriving — he had organized a school at San Felipe, right there in Stephen F.
Austin's Colony. And if that wasn't enough, he also started the first Sunday School in Texas. The man hit the ground running and apparently never slowed down.
The Republic of Texas took notice. In 1838, Pilgrim received a land grant of 1,476 acres from the Republic itself — and this very site was part of that grant. He settled in Gonzales in 1840, started another Sunday School, and served as its superintendent all the way until 1871.
That's a long tenure behind the pulpit of civic life. Now, the community that grew up around that land became a prominent trading post in the early 1840s — folks coming and going, commerce humming along, the kind of place that puts itself on the map. But here's where the story takes a sharp turn.
In the 1870s, this same quiet community became a hideout for John Wesley Hardin — famous gunman, a man whose reputation cast a long shadow across Texas. The trading post that a Connecticut schoolteacher built on republic land, the place where Sunday Schools were held and neighbors gathered to trade, was sheltering one of the most storied outlaws of the era. Thomas J.
Pilgrim passed in 1877. But the ground he earned, settled, and shaped still carries his name — and holds stories he likely never anticipated.
What the marker says
Named in honor of Thomas J. Pilgrim (1804-1877), noted pioneer educator. Born in Connecticut, he came in 1828 to Texas, where in 1829 he organized a school at San Felipe, in Stephen F. Austin's Colony. Also started first Sunday School in Texas. In 1838 he received a land grant of 1,476 acres (including this site) from Texas Republic. Settled in Gonzales in 1840; started a Sunday School and was superintendent until 1871. Community became a prominent trading post in early 1840s and a hideout of famous gunman John Wesley Hardin in 1870s.