DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells this one, and I'm just the voice carrying it down the road. John Reagen Baker. The name alone sounds like it belongs on a wanted poster or a monument — and as it turns out, it belongs on both kinds of history.
This man was what the old records call an adventurer-soldier of early Texas, and friend, that title was earned the hard way. Baker threw in with a cause in 1840 that most folks have long forgotten — the Republic of Rio Grande. He crossed into Mexico to fight for that would-be nation's freedom.
It was an ambitious dream. It was also unsuccessful. But Baker came back, which already tells you something about the man.
He landed in Refugio County, where the people apparently took one look at his résumé and elected him sheriff. And being sheriff in that corner of Texas wasn't exactly a desk job. Baker organized a company of minutemen, because by 1842 he needed them.
That year, three — count 'em, three — Mexican raids came pushing into Texas, and Baker fought against every one of them. You might think a man who'd already survived a failed revolution and three raids would take a breath. Baker was not that kind of man.
He signed on for the Somervell Expedition into Mexico. That venture rolled straight into the Mier Expedition, and history has a word for what followed — disastrous. The marker doesn't mince it.
During those expeditions, Baker was wounded. He made it back to Texas, again, which by this point feels less like luck and more like stubborn intention. He set down his rifle, or at least leaned it against the wall, and entered the mercantile business.
His wife was Avis, born a Brown. And somewhere in Wilson County, a marker stands to make sure the road remembers a man who fought for a republic that never was, held the line against three raids in a single year, walked out of one of Texas history's most disastrous expeditions on a wounded leg, and then went and opened a store. John Reagen Baker — adventurer, soldier, survivor, and apparently, merchant.
Texas has always had a talent for producing men who could be all four.
What the marker says
Adventurer-soldier of early Texas. Fought in Mexico to win freedom for the unsuccessful "Republic of Rio Grande" in 1840. Was elected sheriff of Refugio County and organized a company of minutemen. In 1842 he fought against three Mexican raids into Texas. Then participated in the disastrous Somervell and Mier expeditions into Mexico, during which he was wounded. Returned to Texas and entered mercantile business. Wife was Avis (Brown). Recorded -- 1969