DUANE
Duane's take
The way the marker tells it, here's the story of Frances and Benjamin McCulloch — and I'll give it to you straight. Frances Lenoir McCulloch came into this world on April 11, 1780. She outlived wars, outlived frontiers, and she made it all the way to Ellis County, Texas, where she died on May 10, 1866.
Her son Benjamin was born in Tennessee on November 11, 1811, and if you're keepin' track, that family had range — from Tennessee to Texas to the bloody fields of Arkansas. Now, Frances and her husband Alexander McCulloch had sons worth rememberin'. Two of them — Benjamin and Henry Eustace — rose to become Brigadier Generals in the Confederate Army.
Two brothers, two generals, out of the same household. That is not a thing that happens every day. But Benjamin's story starts long before the Civil War.
On April 21, 1836 — San Jacinto Day, the day Texans still talk about — Benjamin McCulloch was there, standin' in the ranks as a private. A private. A man who would one day wear a general's stars fought that battle as a common soldier, and there's something almost poetic about that if you let it sit a moment.
He climbed. He served. And then on March 7, 1862, at the Battle of Elk Horn in Arkansas, Benjamin McCulloch was killed — while serving as a Brigadier General in the Confederate Army.
Mother and son now rest here together, and the State of Texas saw fit in 1936 to mark the spot and make sure neither of them gets forgotten.
What the marker says
Here Rest Frances Lenoir McCulloch and her son Benjamin McCulloch Two of the sons of Alexander and Frances Lenoir McCulloch * Benjamin and Henry Eustace * were Brigadier Generals in the Confederate Army Frances Lenoir McCulloch was born April 11 * 1780 Died in Ellis County * Texas * May 10, 1866 Benjamin McCulloch was born in Tennessee November 11 * 1811 * * Private in the Battle of San Jacinto April 21 * 1836 * * Killed in the Battle of Elk Horn * Arkansas * March 7 * 1862 While a Brigadier General in the Confederate Army Erected by the State of Texas 1936