DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker says about James Briton Bailey, out on Bailey's Prairie in Brazoria County. Now settle in, because this one earns its place on the register. They called him Brit.
James Briton Bailey, born in 1779, and from the very start the man seems to have arrived in this world with something to prove. The marker remembers him for three things: courage, integrity, and — and this is the part that gets you — eccentric behavior. All three in equal measure, apparently.
Brit Bailey came to Texas in 1818. Not alone, mind you. He brought his wife and six children with him, which tells you something about either his confidence or his stubbornness, and honestly it's hard to say where one ended and the other began.
He put down roots on a stretch of land that came to be known as Bailey's Prairie. Just rolled up, planted himself, and the land eventually took his name. That's one way to leave a mark.
By 1824 he had joined Stephen F. Austin's colony, becoming part of that early web of settlers trying to stitch something lasting out of wild Texas ground. He rose to captain in the local militia.
And when the tensions that would boil over into the 1836 Texas Revolution were already building — Brit Bailey was there, fighting in the battles that came before it. But here's where the story takes a turn that nobody forgets. When Brit Bailey died in 1833, he left behind a final instruction.
A last request so particular, so unmistakably his, that you can almost hear him delivering it with a straight face. He was to be buried standing up. Facing west.
With his gun at his side. The reason? So that no one could look down on him.
Even in death. Now, you can laugh, and maybe you should. But there's something in that request that isn't entirely a joke.
This was a man who had hauled his family into an untamed land in 1818, built something on an empty prairie, fought battles before a revolution had a name, and lived by his own code of courage and integrity the whole way through. Standing up in death wasn't eccentricity for its own sake. It was the final verse of a life sung at full volume.
Bailey's Prairie still carries his name. And somewhere beneath it, if the old marker's to be believed, Brit Bailey is still facing west. Still armed.
Still not letting anybody look down on him.
What the marker says
(1779-1833) Pioneer Texan noted for his courage, integrity, and eccentric behavior. Came to Texas in 1818 with wife and six children. He settled on what came to be "Bailey's Prairie". Joined Stephen F. Austin's colony, 1824. Bailey became a captain in the local militia. Fought in battles preceding 1836 Texas Revolution. At his request he was buried standing up, facing west, gun at side so no one could look down on him, even in death. Recorded - 1970