DUANE
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Duane's take
The official marker is my guide here, and this is how Duane tells it. Now settle in, because this one starts with a log cabin and ends with a town that still carries the mark of the man. Near Cat Spring, Austin County, Texas, sometime around 1840, a boy came into the world in a log cabin.
His name was James West Bostick. His father, J.H. Bostick, was an Alabama native and one of Stephen F.
Austin's legendary Old 300 settlers. That's the kind of lineage that carries weight in Texas, and young James grew up knowing it. When the Civil War came calling, James Bostick answered.
He served four years in the Confederate army. Four years. Whatever that made of a man, he came out the other side and he did something with it.
He became a doctor. Then he married Rebecca Taylor, daughter of a prominent East Texas family, and the two of them started building a life together. In 1885 they moved to Sealy, and they did not arrive quietly.
Dr. Bostick and Rebecca helped found St. John's Episcopal Church.
He set up his practice as one of Sealy's first doctors. And if medicine alone wasn't enough to keep him busy, he also owned and operated a drugstore. In 1895 they built their home right here.
Two years later, on February 22, 1897, Dr. James West Bostick was gone. Fifty-seven years old.
He was buried in the Sealy Public Cemetery. The log cabin near Cat Spring, the four years of war, the medicine, the church, the drugstore, the home built with his own ambition. All of it, right here in one county.
What the marker says
(ca. 1840-February 22, 1897) James West Bostick, born in a log cabin near Cat Spring, Austin County, Texas, was the son of J.H. Bostick, Alabama native and one of Stephen F. Austin's "Old 300" settlers. James Bostick served in the Confederate army for 4 years and later became a doctor. He married Rebecca Taylor, daughter of a prominent East Texas family. They moved to Sealy in 1885, helped found St. John's Episcopal Church, and built their home here in 1895. Dr. Bostick, one of Sealy's first doctors, also owned and operated a drugstore. He died at the age of 57, and was buried in the Sealy Public Cemetery in 1897. (1994)