DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just the voice carryin' it down the road. Now, San Antonio de Bexar, 1810 — that's where Don Juan Ximenes drew his first breath. The same city that would one day ask everything of men like him.
By 1835, Texas was at war for its independence, and Juan Ximenes was in it. Not watchin' from a distance, not waitin' to see how the wind blew — he was in the Texas War for Independence, 1835 to 1836, right in the thick of it. And when December 5th of 1835 rolled around, he was part of the storming party at Bexar.
Think about that for a moment. The very city where he was born, and there he was, fighting for it. He came through that war.
And what he built afterward — a life in Texas as a citizen, a soldier, and a Ranger — earned him a description that doesn't get handed out lightly: honored. The marker calls him an honored citizen, soldier, and Ranger of Texas. Three things, stacked together, each one a whole story on its own.
Don Juan Ximenes died July 22, 1877. Born in San Antonio de Bexar, died a Texan. The State of Texas erected this marker in 1963 to make sure the road remembers him.
Some men are woven right into the ground beneath your wheels. He's one of 'em.
What the marker says
Born in San Antonio de Bexar, 1810. Veteran in the Texas War for Independence, 1835-1836. One of the storming party at Bexar, December 5, 1835. An honored citizen, soldier and Ranger of Texas. Died July 22, 1877. Erected by the State of Texas 1963