DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. John Turner Tinsley came into this world around 1809, way up in Sumner County, Tennessee, born to Moses and Elizabeth Tinsley — Elizabeth being a Turner before she was a Tinsley. Now, the boy grew up to be a physician, which already puts him in rarified company on the Texas frontier, and somewhere along the way he married a Kentucky woman named Nancy Willis.
Together they had five children, and in 1834 — just a handful of years before everything in Texas got very loud and very dangerous — the whole family pulled up stakes and came to Gonzales, settling in east of Water Street. A man builds a life. He practices medicine, heals his neighbors, serves as alderman, serves as mayor, serves as justice of the peace.
If there was a civic role that needed filling in Gonzales, John Turner Tinsley was apparently the kind of man people looked to. But here's where the story shifts registers on you. When the Texas Revolution came looking for its opening act, it found Gonzales — and it found Tinsley.
He took part in the Battle of Gonzales, the very beginning of that revolution, the first shot of a war that would remake a whole corner of the continent. And then, when things got desperate and settlers were fleeing ahead of advancing forces in what history calls the Runaway Scrape, Tinsley was there again, aiding General Sam Houston's troops. Physician.
Mayor. Soldier. The man wore a lot of hats, and he wore them well.
He was buried here in Gonzales in 1878. The marker calls him a Texas patriot, and after everything you just heard, it's hard to argue with that.
What the marker says
John Turner Tinsley was born circa 1809 in Sumner County, Tennessee to Moses and Elizabeth (Turner) Tinsley. He later became a physician and married Nancy Willis of Kentucky, with whom he had five children. The family came to Gonzales in 1834 and settled east of Water Street. Tinsley served the community as a physician, alderman, mayor and justice of the peace. He also took part in the Battle of Gonzales at the beginning of the Texas Revolution, and aided Gen. Sam Houston's troops during the Runaway Scrape. The Texas patriot was buried here in 1878. Recorded - 2004