Home of William Jennings Bryan

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm tellin' it to you. Picture this: land that once belonged to the Mission of the Oblate Fathers, a hundred and sixty acres of South Texas soil, and one day a man named William Jennings Bryan shows up and makes it his own. Bryan, born in 1860, who would live until 1925, walked onto this property sometime around 1910 and called it his.

He held it until 1916, six years of his life rooted right here in Hidalgo County. Now, you might think a man like Bryan would spend his time on a spread like that just watching the sun go down over the brush country. But no.

He was writin'. Articles, plural, coming off this land like the place itself had something to say. And if that weren't enough, while he was residing right here, he got himself into a magazine debate with Senator Albert J.

Beveridge. A debate. In print.

The kind where both men sharpen their words careful and slow, knowing the whole reading public is watching. Two heavyweights, going at it through the pages of a magazine, and one of them was doing it from a hundred and sixty acres that used to be mission land. The State of Texas thought enough of all that to erect this marker in 1936.

Some ground just carries more history than it looks like it ought to.

What the marker says

(1860 - - 1925) Once the lands of the Mission of the Oblate Fathers, this property (160 acres) was owned by Bryan from 1910 to 1916 - - While residing here he wrote many articles and engaged in a magazine debate with Senator Albert J. Beveridge. Erected by the State of Texas 1936