Hugh B. Johnston

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to give it the tellin' it deserves. Now, Liberty County has seen its share of characters — men who showed up when Texas was still figuring out what it wanted to be — and Hugh B. Johnston was one of those men.

Born in Tennessee, he made his way to this corner of the world and planted himself right at the center of things. In 1831, when Liberty was barely a municipality and the ink was still wet on the whole idea of it, Johnston was named its first alcalde. First.

That's not a footnote — that's the opening line of the story. He was the man holding the gavel when there wasn't even a proper courthouse to put it in. Then 1835 rolls around, and Texas is getting restless, getting loud.

Johnston answered the call and went as a delegate to the Consultation — that gathering where Texans were working out, sometimes very loudly, what they were going to do about their situation. He was in the room. And then, as if being the first alcalde and a Consultation delegate weren't enough for one man's résumé, he came back to serve as a member of Congress in 1838 and 1839.

Hugh B. Johnston died in 1850, leaving behind a record that stretches from the very first days of this municipality all the way through the founding of a republic. Tennessee gave him to the world, and Liberty, Texas, made him something worth remembering.

What the marker says

First alcalde of Liberty municipality, 1831. Delegate to the Consultation, 1835; member of Congress, 1838-1839. Born in Tennessee; died in 1850.