DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of the official marker for Dr. George Moffit Patrick, just as the State of Texas set it down. Now, some men collect titles the way a river collects tributaries — one feeds into the next, and before long you've got something too wide to cross on foot.
Dr. George Moffit Patrick was that kind of man. He came into this world in Virginia, on September the thirtieth, 1801.
And right from the start, it seems like Texas had plans for him — though Texas didn't quite know it yet. By 1832, he was already knee-deep in the thick of things, volunteering at Anahuac. That name, Anahuac, was already carrying a charge in those days — a place where the friction between settlers and authority had a way of throwing sparks.
Patrick was there. Three years later, 1835, he took a seat at the Consultation. That was the body where men who'd had just about enough sat down together to decide what came next for Texas.
Patrick among them. And then came 1836. While others were marching overland, Dr.
George Moffit Patrick was out on the water, commanding the Schooner Flash. Let that settle in for a moment — a schooner named Flash, cutting through Texas waters in the middle of a revolution. The years kept coming, and so did the honors.
In 1848 and into 1849, Patrick stood as Most Worshipful Grand Master of the Grand Masonic Lodge of Texas. That is about as high as the fraternity goes. His wife, Martha Scaife Patrick, was born in England in 1813.
She came a long way from home to make a life in Texas. She died in Grimes County, Texas, on September the twenty-sixth, 1855. Dr.
George Moffit Patrick himself lived on, all the way to June the twenty-eighth, 1889, when he too passed in Grimes County, Texas. The State of Texas erected this marker in 1936 — making sure that a man who showed up at Anahuac, sat at the Consultation, sailed the Flash, and led the Grand Lodge would not quietly slip past us on the road. And thanks to that marker, he hasn't.
What the marker says
A volunteer at Anahuac, 1832 Member of the Consultation, 1835 Commander of the Schooner "Flash" 1836 Most Worshipful Grand Master Grand (Masonic) Lodge of Texas, 1848-49 Born in Virginia, September 30, 1801 Died in Grimes County, Texas June 28, 1889 His Wife Martha Scaife Patrick Born in England in 1813 Died in Grimes County, Texas September 26, 1855 Erected by the State of Texas 1936