DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker's the word on this one, and here's how I tell it. Now, some men move through life quiet and steady, leaving good work wherever they set down roots — and Dr. Moses Johnson of Virginia was that kind of man, only life kept testing him something fierce.
Born in 1808, Johnson made his way to Port Lavaca around 1837, settling into a young and restless Texas that was still figuring out what it wanted to be. He wasn't content to stay put, though. By 1840 he'd packed up and moved to Austin to practice medicine, and once he was there, the city took notice.
They elected him alderman. Then they elected him mayor. The man had a way of earning trust.
He was deep in the Masons too — active enough that in 1844 he served as Grand Marshal of the Grand Lodge of Texas, A.F. & A.M., which was no small honor. And 1844 was a big year for Johnson in another way. When Anson Jones was elected president of the Republic of Texas, Jones named his friend Moses Johnson as treasurer.
Friend and physician, alderman and mayor, Grand Marshal and now keeper of the Republic's purse. Not a bad run. Then 1845 arrived, and it brought fire.
Johnson's Austin home burned — and with it, the treasury records. Gone. Whatever those records held, whatever couldn't be rebuilt from memory or duplicates, it went up in smoke.
Johnson moved his family back to Port Lavaca the following year, back to where he'd first put down roots in Texas soil. He was building again, as men do. But Port Lavaca in 1853 was no safe harbor.
Yellow fever came through, as it did in those days — quiet and merciless — and on October 2nd of that year, Dr. Moses Johnson died in the epidemic. He is buried a quarter mile west of this very site.
Born 1808. Gone 1853. Virginia to Texas, medicine to politics to tragedy, and finally to this piece of ground right here off the road.
What the marker says
(1808-1853) Born in Virginia, Dr. Moses Johnson settled in Port Lavaca about 1837. After moving to Austin in 1840 to practice medicine, he was elected city alderman and then mayor. An active Mason, he served as Grand Marshal of the Grand Lodge of Texas, A.F. & A.M. in 1844. When Anson Jones was elected president of the Republic in 1844, he named his friend Johnson treasurer. In 1845 Johnson's Austin home and the treasury records were destroyed by fire. He moved his family back to Port Lavaca the next year. He died in a yellow fever epidemic there on Oct. 2, 1853 and is buried 1/4 mile west of this site. (1975)