DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just here to pass it along. Now, Bastrop County has its share of names worth remembering, and this one belongs to Martin Walker. The marker calls him a Mina volunteer — and if you know anything about the Texas War for Independence, you know that volunteers were the backbone of that fight.
Men who stepped up when stepping up meant something, when the outcome was far from settled. Martin Walker was one of those men. He fought in that war, and the marker says he fought bravely.
That's the word they chose — bravely — and I don't think they handed that out to just anybody. The State of Texas saw fit to erect a marker in his honor in 1962, a star and wreath marking the spot, the kind of recognition that says: we remember. And now, rolling through Bastrop County, so do you.
What the marker says
Star and Wreath A Mina volunteer who fought bravely in the Texas War for Independence. Erected by the State of Texas, 1962