DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Joseph Randolph Yarbrough — born January 31, 1817, out of Louisiana — came to Texas at a moment when Texas was still being fought over, and he didn't sit that moment out. He served in the Texas War for Independence from Mexico, and when the smoke was building toward San Jacinto, he was assigned to guard the camp opposite Harrisburg during that battle.
Now, San Jacinto is the kind of name that echoes down through Texas history, and here's a man who was there — not at the center of the thunder, maybe, but holding the line where he was told to hold it. That counts. That always counts.
He lived through it. And then the work of building something began. In 1837, Joseph and his father, John Swanson Yarbrough, put their names to a petition requesting the creation of Houston County.
Father and son, side by side on that document, helping draw the map of what Texas would become. In 1840, Joseph married Phebe Clementine Crawford, born in 1823. Together they settled in north Houston County, near Grapeland, and they built a family — eleven children.
Eleven. Phebe, for her part, lived until 1907. Joseph didn't see as far — he died March 26, 1867.
But he'd crossed from Louisiana into a revolution, stood guard at one of Texas's most consequential moments, helped petition a county into existence, and raised eleven children on the north Houston County land. Some stories don't need embellishing. The miles speak for themselves.
What the marker says
(Jan. 31, 1817 -- Mar. 26, 1867) A native of Louisiana, Joseph Randolph Yarbrough served in the Texas War for Independence from Mexico and was assigned to guard the camp opposite Harrisburg during the Battle of San Jacinto. He and his father, John Swanson Yarbrough, signed the petition requesting the creation of Houston county in 1837. In 1840, he married Phebe Clementine Crawford (1823-1907). They eventually settled in north Houston County near Grapeland and had a family of 11 children.