DUANE
Duane's take
The marker's got the word on this one, and I'm just here to pass it along the way it deserves to be told. Now settle in, because this particular stretch of Texas ground has got more history soaked into it than most folks ever stop to notice driving past. We're talking about the homesite of Matthew Burnett — a man who, through no particular fault of his own, found himself right in the path of just about everything that mattered in the spring of 1836.
Matthew Burnett was born in 1795, his wife Sarah — born Simmons — came into the world in 1797, and together they made the decision in 1831 to pull up out of Arkansas and head to Texas. They settled south of here, on Cypress Creek, and set to building a life. Their home sat along what folks called the Harrisburg Road — fifteen miles to the northwest was the crossroads at the home of their closest neighbor, a man named Abram Roberts, and twenty-five miles to the southeast lay Harrisburg itself.
You could say the Burnetts were positioned right in the middle of things. They just didn't know yet how middle of things they truly were. Come March 22, 1836, the interim government of the Republic of Texas stopped here — briefly, they said — while making their way to establish the Republic's new capital at Harrisburg.
A government on the move, stopping at a farmhouse on a dirt road. Texas was young and in a hurry. But that was just the opening act.
On April 16, 1836, about dusk, eleven hundred men of the Texas army — under the command of Sam Houston himself — came rolling down that same road after turning southeast at Roberts' crossroads earlier in the day. Eleven hundred men. At dusk.
At your house. Now I don't know what Matthew Burnett said when he saw that column coming, but I imagine the word that came to mind wasn't welcome. By the time the army settled in for the night, they had consumed most of Burnett's livestock and grains, and burned his fence rails for fuel.
The next morning they departed for Harrisburg. Four days later — on April 21 — those same eleven hundred men routed the Mexican army at the Battle of San Jacinto, and Texas won its independence from Mexico. The Burnetts, for their part, had already fled during what history remembers as the Runaway Scrape.
They came back only after word reached them that San Jacinto had been won. And here's where the story takes its quiet turn. In the late 1830s and into the 1840s, the Burnett home grew into a prominent landmark and a well-known tavern on the road to the city of Houston.
The same house that an army had eaten nearly bare became a place people sought out. Sarah Burnett lived until 1852. Matthew did not see those later years — he passed in 1842.
But the road went on, and the house stood, and the ground right here remembered every bit of it.
What the marker says
Texas army camp - April 16, 1836. Matthew Burnett (1795-1842) and his wife, Sarah (Simmons) (1797-1852), came to Texas from Arkansas in 1831 and settled south of here on Cypress Creek. Their home was near the "Harrisburg Road" which stretched 15 miles northwest to a crossroads at the home of their closest neighbor, Abram Roberts, and, in the other direction, 25 miles southeast to Harrisburg. The interim government of the Republic of Texas stayed here briefly on March 22, 1836, while enroute to establish the Republic's new capital at Harrisburg. The Texas army, 1100 men under the command of Sam Houston, stopped here about dusk on April 16, 1836, after turning southeast at the Robert's crossroads earlier in the day. During their overnight stay they consumed most of Burnett's livestock and grains, and burned fence rails for fuel. The next morning the Texas army departed for Harrisburg. Four days later, on April 21, they routed the Mexican army at the Battle of San Jacinto, winning Texas independence from Mexico. Having fled the area in the episode known as the "Runaway Scrape," the Burnetts returned after learning of the victory at San Jacinto. In the late 1830s and 1840s their home became a prominent landmark and well-known tavern on the road to the city of Houston.