DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells this story, and I'm gonna tell it to you the way it deserves to be told. Two men. Two pieces of ground.
One single day that ended everything. Daniel McLean was born in 1784, and from the very beginning it seems like Texas had its eye on him. He came out of North Carolina, the way a lot of these early settlers did, and the first time he set foot in Texas soil was 1813 — not as a colonist, but as a fighter.
He rode with the Gutierrez-Magee expedition, that bold and ragged campaign bent on freeing Mexico from Spain. That alone would be enough of a story for most men. But McLean wasn't finished with Texas, and Texas wasn't finished with him.
When Stephen Austin opened Texas to Anglo-American colonization, McLean came back. In 1824, he took up land right here on San Pedro Creek, just east of where you're sitting right now. His brother-in-law, John Sheridan — born April 5, 1796, also out of North Carolina — settled just up the way, on Silver Creek, three hundred yards to the north.
Two families, two pieces of Texas ground, side by side the way family tends to plant itself when the world is wide open. These were the earliest settlers in this whole area. They'd scratched a life out of raw land, built something worth protecting.
And then someone stole their horses. Now if you know anything about this country in that era, you know that horses weren't a convenience — they were survival itself. So McLean and Sheridan went after them.
Out toward what would become Slocum, about twelve miles to the northwest. And somewhere out there, on May 10, 1837, they were both killed by Indians. Same day.
Both of them. Daniel McLean and John Sheridan, gone on the same May morning. What happened next is the part that stays with you.
Mrs. Sheridan — with nothing but the help of a boy — went out and brought the bodies back. You sit with that for a moment.
The quiet determination that must have taken. No army, no posse. Just a woman and a boy, doing what needed doing.
And then each man was buried on his own land. The land McLean had claimed in 1824. The land Sheridan had settled on Silver Creek.
They came to Texas together, they died on the same day, and they were laid to rest right where they'd chosen to make their stand. That's how deep roots go in this country — all the way down.
What the marker says
Daniel McLean (1784 - May 10, 1837)_John Sheridan (April 5, 1796 - May 10, 1837) This area's earliest settlers; from North Carolina. McLean came to Texas in 1813 with Guttierez-Magee expedition, seeking to free Mexico from Spain. Returning when Austin opened Texas to Anglo-American colonization, he took up land in 1824 on San Pedro Creek (east of here); His brother-in-law John Sheridan settled on Silver Creek (300 yds. N). Near site of present Slocum (12 mi. NW) they were both killed by Indians while pursuing stolen horses. Mrs. Sheridan, with help of a boy, brought back the bodies. Each man was buried on his own land. (1971)