DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker in Bastrop County tells it like this, and I'll do my best to honor every word of it. Now, some names just carry weight. John Socrates Darling.
Say that name out loud and you can feel it — a philosopher's name, a fighter's name. Born April 24, 1806, and by the time he was a young man, Texas was calling. He came in 1835.
Not a bad year to arrive, if you had a taste for history — and apparently John Socrates Darling did, because he walked straight into the middle of it. Before the year was even out, he was a soldier in the Texas War for Independence, standing in the thick of the Siege of Bexar, 1835. That was no small thing.
Bexar was hard, grinding work — the kind of fight that chews men up and asks if they want more. Apparently John wanted more. Because come 1836, there he was at the Battle of San Jacinto.
He saw that through too. He lived out his days and passed on April 6, 1870. And here is where the story turns quiet, and you'd best let it.
His wife, Louranie Darling, had come into this world on June 10, 1810. She outlasted John by — well, by almost nothing at all. June 8, 1870.
Two days after her husband left this earth, Louranie followed. The State of Texas put up this marker in 1962, and it lists them together, just like that — side by side, the way they apparently intended to stay.
What the marker says
Born April 24, 1806; came to Texas in 1835. A soldier in the Texas War for Independence before and during the Siege of Bexar, 1835, and participated in the Battle of San Jacinto, 1836. Died April 6, 1870. His wife, Louranie Darling, born June 10, 1810; died June 8, 1870. Erected by the State of Texas 1962