David Crawford Edmiston

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. David Crawford Edmiston. Born March 2, 1825.

And if you're keepin' count, he was still here on January 18, 1903. That's a life that stretched across some of the most consequential chapters this state ever lived through, and David Edmiston was present for more than a few of them. He came into this world in Arkansas, but Texas claimed him early.

In 1835, the Edmiston family made the move, and young David came right along with them. Texas was not yet a republic when those wheels rolled in. The place was raw, the frontier was real, and it pressed itself right up against daily life.

David grew into that world. As a young man, he served with a frontier defense unit of the Texas Rangers. That means he was out on the edge, where the edge mattered most.

That wasn't the end of his ranging, either. When the Mexican War came, he served as a Ranger again. Then the Civil War, and David put on a Confederate uniform and soldiered through that, too.

Three separate chapters of armed service, and through all of it, the man kept living. In 1856, he married the former Rhoda Bowen. Together they raised eleven children.

Eleven. On a farmstead near Webberville. That farmstead is still standing, right now, a visible reminder of the heritage of this area.

A man who rode with the Rangers twice, soldiered in two wars, fathered eleven children, and built something that outlasted him. The marker says it plain: David Crawford Edmiston's Webberville farmstead remains. Some things just do.

What the marker says

March 2, 1825 - January 18, 1903 A native of Arkansas, David C. Edmiston came to Texas with his family in 1835. As a young man, David served with a frontier defense unit of the Texas Rangers. He later served as a Ranger in the Mexican War, and was a soldier in the Confederate Army during the Civil war. Married to the former Rhoda Bowen in 1856, he was the father of eleven children. His Webberville farmstead remains as a visible reminder of the area's heritage.