John Durst

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's the story of John Durst. John Durst came to Texas in 1821. Think about that for a moment.

Eighteen twenty-one. That is early. That is before almost anybody else had a toe across the line, and John Durst was already there, making himself at home.

By 1835 he was the owner of the Old Stone Fort in Nacogdoches. The Old Stone Fort. Not a cabin, not a lean-to.

A stone fort. That tells you something about the kind of man John Durst was, and the kind of times he was living in. Then, in 1844, he moved his family to Leon County.

And here is where the story gets a little bigger than just one man. His wife, Harriet M. Durst, born Jamison, in Virginia on February the fifth, 1807, she was the first Anglo-American woman to take up residence in Leon County.

The first. You can picture it, this county that would grow into something real, and there she is at the front of it. John Durst himself was born in Arkansas on February the fourth, 1797, and he died February the ninth, 1851.

Harriet outlasted him by a good long stretch, dying September the twenty-third, 1885. The State of Texas erected this marker in 1936, because some stories deserve a stone to stand on. And the Dursts, well, they had already proven they knew a thing or two about that.

What the marker says

Came to Texas in 1821. Owner of the Old Stone Fort in Nacogdoches in 1835. Moved to Leon County in 1844, his wife being the first Anglo-American woman resident of the county. Born in Arkansas Feb. 4, 1797. Died Feb. 9, 1851. His wife, Harriet M. (Jamison) Durst, born in Virginia Feb. 5, 1807. Died Sept. 23, 1885. Erected by the State of Texas 1936