DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it — my job is just to do it justice. Now, let me tell you about a man they called Old Shelby. His given name was Jonathan Anderson, Kentucky born, and he carried that frontier spirit all the way down into the heart of what was then Mexican territory.
He wasn't just anybody, either. His grandfather was Bailey Anderson, a veteran of the American Revolution — so you might say fighting for something bigger than yourself ran in that family's blood. Jonathan settled in this area before Texas was even Texas, back when it still answered to Mexico.
And when the call came to throw off that yoke, he answered it. He served in the Texas Revolution and was there at the Battle of San Jacinto — one of the men who stood on that field when the whole future of Texas hung in the balance. Then comes 1848, and here's where Old Shelby's story takes a turn that still echoes today.
Panola County had been organized two years earlier, carved out of Shelby County — and now it needed a proper seat of government. Jonathan Anderson looked at that need and made a decision. He donated one hundred acres, right here, for the formation of Carthage.
One hundred acres, given over to the making of a town, a courthouse, a center of civic life. He didn't stop there, either. He went on to serve as sheriff and as tax assessor-collector — a man who'd fought for this land and then stuck around to help govern it.
Years passed. Carthage grew. The courthouse square that rose on his donated land eventually gave way to a park.
And in 1956, they named that park for him. Jonathan Anderson. Old Shelby himself.
Turns out the best monument a man can leave isn't always something he built — sometimes it's the ground he gave away.
What the marker says
Kentucky native Jonathan "Old Shelby" Anderson, a grandson of American Revolution veteran Bailey Anderson, settled in this area when Texas was part of Mexico. He served in the Texas Revolution and fought at the Battle of San Jacinto. In 1848 he donated 100 acres here for the formation of Carthage, the new seat of government for Panola County, which was organized two years earlier from Shelby County. He later served as sheriff and tax assessor-collector. This park, the site of the former Carthage courthouse square, was named for Anderson in 1956.