DUANE
Duane's take
Here's the story as the official marker tells it, and it's one worth tellin' right. Jonathan Cochran Pool. Born August 6, 1806, in Georgia.
Died February 21, 1886, right here in Falls County, Texas. And between those two dates stretched one of those lives that seems almost too full to fit into a single man. Pool came to Texas in 1815 — as a child, mind you, riding west with his family to settle in what is now Red River County.
Texas wasn't even Texas yet. It was wild, contested ground, and young Jonathan Cochran Pool was going to grow up right along with it. When the revolutionary fires started crackling, Pool didn't watch from the fence.
He enlisted in the Texian Army and stepped into the smoke at Anahuac, at Nacogdoches, and at San Antonio. Three skirmishes, three places where the future of Texas was still very much up for argument. And after all that, he wasn't done.
He went on to serve as an Indian Scout for General Sam Houston himself. Think about that — riding out ahead, reading the land, carrying word back to the general. After decades of living hard and ranging wide, Pool finally settled in Falls County in 1852.
He farmed. He raised stock. He put down roots deep enough that when the Civil War came, he answered that call too.
When Jonathan Cochran Pool died on February 21, 1886, they buried him right here on his plantation — the same ground he'd worked, the same ground he'd claimed. Some men spend their whole lives looking for a place to belong. Pool found his, and he's still in it.
What the marker says
(Aug. 6, 1806 - Feb. 21, 1886) A native of Georgia, Jonathan Cochran Pool moved to Texas with his family in 1815, settling in what is now Red River County. As a young man, he enlisted in the Texian Army and participated in early revolutionary skirmishes at Anahuac, Nacogdoches, and San Antonio. Pool later served as an Indian Scout for Gen. Sam Houston. In 1852 he settled in Falls County, where he was a farmer and stock raiser. A Civil War veteran, Pool was buried at this site on his plantation.