DUANE
Duane's take
The way the official marker tells it, here's the story of John W. Moore — and it's one worth hearing slow. Now, you have to understand the kind of man we're talking about.
By the time most folks were just getting their boots muddy in Texas, John W. Moore was already standing in the middle of the fire. Back in 1832, he was at Anahuac — opposed Bradburn, right there, face to face with trouble before trouble even had a proper name in this territory.
That's where the story begins. Then 1835 rolls around, and Moore is in San Felipe for the Consultation. The men gathered there were trying to figure out what Texas was going to be.
Moore was in that room. He had a seat at that table. And then — 1836.
You know what 1836 means in Texas. Moore put his name on the Declaration of Independence. Signed it.
His hand, his name, his word staked to the whole audacious enterprise. There's a reason we remember that year. But here's the thing about John W.
Moore — he didn't stop at the founding. He stayed. Harris County needed a sheriff, and from 1837 to 1840, that was Moore.
The first one. Then come 1840, Houston needed an alderman, and Moore stepped into that role too. On February 2, 1839 — right in the middle of all that — he married Eliza Belnap.
He died in Houston in 1846. First sheriff. Signer.
One of the men who showed up when Texas was still an argument. The marker remembers him. And now, out here on the road, so do we.
What the marker says
Opposed Bradburn at Anahuac 1832. Member of the Consultation at San Felipe in 1835. Signer of the Declaration of Independence, 1836. First sheriff of Harris County, 1837 to 1840. City alderman in Houston, 1840. Married to Eliza Belnap, February 2, 1839. Died in Houston, 1846.