DUANE
Duane's take
The way the marker tells it, here's the story of Martin Varner — and it's one worth hearing slow. Born on March the fourth, 1787, Martin Varner was the kind of man who didn't wait for Texas to come to him. He came to Texas before 1820, back when that meant something entirely different than it does today.
He partnered up with a man named Henry Jones, and together they ran a trading post in the Red River settlement of Jonesboro. That's how early we're talking. Varner was one of the Old Three Hundred — that's the name history gave to the settlers of Stephen F.
Austin's first colony. Not three hundred strangers, but three hundred souls who planted themselves in raw, uncertain ground and decided to stay. Varner was among them.
He homesteaded first near present-day Independence in 1822. Two years later, in 1824, he moved again — this time near Columbia — and there he built the Varner Plantation. A man putting down roots, one move at a time.
But Martin Varner wasn't just a farmer. He fought at the Battle of Velasco on June 26, 1832, and he was there on April 21, 1836, at San Jacinto. That name needs no embellishment.
In 1841, he migrated to Wood County. And here's where the story turns heavy. Martin Varner — veteran of Velasco and San Jacinto, one of the Old Three Hundred, a man who'd survived all of that — was mortally wounded in an altercation over a debt.
A debt. He died February 14, 1844. And he is buried one hundred yards east of where you're standing right now.
What the marker says
(March 4, 1787 - Feb. 14, 1844) Came to Texas before 1820, and, in partnership with Henry Jones, operated a trading post in the Red River settlement of Jonesboro. He was a member of the "Old Three Hundred" who settled Stephen F. Austin's first colony. Varner first homesteaded near present Independence in 1822, then moved near Columbia in 1824, where he built the Varner Plantation. He fought in the Battles of Velasco (June 26, 1832) and San Jacinto (April 21, 1836). In 1841, Varner migrated to Wood County, where he was mortally wounded in an altercation over a debt. He is buried 100 yards east. (1975)