DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Somewhere in Colorado County, Texas, there's a spot of ground that remembers a woman worth remembering — Fannie Baker Darden, born in 1829, gone in 1890, and in between those two years, she packed in a life that most folks only dream about. They called her the Poet Laureate of Columbus, and that wasn't some title she handed herself.
That was the community sayin': this one belongs to us, and we're proud of it. Now Fannie came from serious stock. Her father was General Mosely Baker, a hero of the Texas War for Independence — the kind of name that carries weight in any Texas parlor, any courthouse, any stretch of road in the state.
Her mother was Eliza. So Fannie grew up with Texas history literally sittin' at the dinner table. On January 26th, 1847, she married an attorney by the name of W.
J. Darden, and together they had two sons. Then in 1852, they moved here — to this very ground.
And this is where Fannie got to work. She taught art at Colorado College, which tells you something right there. She wasn't content to simply arrive somewhere and settle.
She had things to give, and she gave them. And if the teaching wasn't enough — and apparently it wasn't, because Fannie Baker Darden was not a woman who did things halfway — she was also writin'. Not just for one paper, not just for the local Columbus readers, but for Galveston, for Houston, for New Orleans.
Her words were travelin' roads she may never have walked herself. One woman, one homesite in Colorado County, and her voice reaching clean across the Gulf Coast press. That's what this ground remembers.
What the marker says
(1829-1890) Known as "Poet Laureate of Columbus." Daughter of Texas War for Independence hero, Gen. Mosely Baker, and his wife Eliza; married attorney W. J. Darden, Jan 26, 1847; had two sons. Moved here, 1852. Taught art at Colorado College. Wrote for Columbus, Galveston, Houston, New Orleans newspaper.