DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker for Duval County tells it like this, and I'll do my best to honor every word of it. Now, Texas has got counties named for heroes, counties named for statesmen, counties named for men who lived long and died comfortable. Duval County is not that story.
Duval County carries the name of a man whose story ended hard, and ended early. The county itself was created on February 1, 1858 — though it wouldn't get itself organized until November 7, 1876. That's nearly two decades of existing on paper before it got around to functioning as a proper county.
Texas has always done things on its own schedule. But the name. That's where you want to pay attention.
Burr H. Duval. Born in 1809.
He came to Texas and took up a captain's commission, commanding a company under Fannin's forces at Goliad. Now, if you know Texas history, you already feel where this is heading. That name — Goliad — it lands like a stone in still water.
Fannin's command surrendered. And what happened after that surrender is the thing the marker doesn't soften, and neither will I. On March 27, 1836, Burr H.
Duval was murdered. Not killed in battle. Murdered.
After the surrender. He was twenty-six years old — born in 1809, dead in 1836 — and Texas remembered him. San Diego serves as the county seat, sitting at the heart of a county that carries a captain's name across the brush country to this day.
Some honors are paid in stone and ceremony. This one was paid in geography — written right across the map of Texas, permanent as the ground itself.
What the marker says
Created February 1, 1858, organized November 7, 1876. Named in honor of Burr H. Duval, 1809-1836. Captain of a company of Fannin's command at Goliad. Murdered after the surrender March 27, 1836. San Diego, the county seat.