DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, some men live long enough to see a whole world change around them — and Isaac Lee was one of those men. Born on February 8, 1788, in Georgia, he didn't sit still for long.
He moved through Mississippi, then Arkansas, restless as a river finding its course. And then, in 1828, he came to Texas. Texas, mind you — not yet a republic, not yet a state, just a wild stretch of land that had a way of keeping the people who found it.
Lee settled first at what is now San Augustine, then later near Nacogdoches. He wasn't just passing through. In 1832, when the Battle of Nacogdoches came, Isaac Lee was there.
He participated in that fight — right in the thick of it. And later, he served in the Army of the Republic of Texas. A man who helped shape a nation, more or less with his own two hands.
He and his wife, Mary, raised four children together. Four souls who carried the Lee name forward into a changing Texas. Now, the years kept rolling.
By 1870, Isaac Lee moved out to a farm near Alto to live with his daughter, Mary Ann Anderson. And it was there, ten years later, on October 4, 1880, that he died. Born in 1788.
Gone in 1880. He had watched Georgia, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas all in one lifetime — and Texas, to the very end, is where he stayed.
What the marker says
(February 8, 1788 -- October 4, 1880) A native of Georgia, Isaac Lee lived in Mississippi and Arkansas before coming to Texas in 1828. He settled first at present San Augustine and later near Nacogdoches. He was a participant in the Battle of Nacogdoches in 1832 and served in the Republic of Texas Army. He and his wife, Mary, were the parents of four children. Lee moved to a farm near Alto to live with his daughter, Mary Ann Anderson, in 1870 and died there ten years later.