DUANE
Duane's take
The way I hear it told — straight from the official marker on this very stretch of Texas — here's what happened at Turtle Bayou. June of 1832. Texas wasn't yet a republic, wasn't yet a state, and the trouble that would eventually become the Texas Revolution was still a few years off.
But trouble, as they say, has to start somewhere. On June 13th, 1832, a group of settlers sat down at Turtle Bayou and put their names to what would become the first formal protest of Texas colonists against Mexican tyranny. Now that's a sentence worth letting breathe for a moment.
The very first. And it happened right here. But to understand why they were writing, you have to back up just a few days.
Mexico had been passing restrictive laws — laws designed to limit immigration and limit trade between the United States and Texas. The reason was plain enough: Mexico feared losing Texas to the U.S. And that fear produced laws, and those laws produced resentment, and resentment, well, it produced Colonel Juan Davis Bradburn.
Bradburn was a local agent of the Mexican government stationed at Anahuac, and by all accounts he was not a man who made friends easily. The citizens of Anahuac were enraged — that's the marker's own word, enraged — by what they called his unreasonable acts. Among those Bradburn unjustly imprisoned was a young man you may have heard of: William B.
Travis, who would later die at the Alamo. Fighting broke out on June 9th and again on June 12th, 1832, between the citizens and Bradburn's militia. Two clashes in four days.
So on June 13th, the Texans met at Turtle Bayou to figure out what came next. What they produced wasn't a battle plan — it was something more lasting. They drew up resolutions.
They censured violations of Mexico's own constitution by President Bustamante. They encouraged resistance to his regime. And they sent out an open invitation to all Texans to uphold the cause of civil liberty.
Six men put their names to that document: John Austin, W. H. Jack, Hugh B.
Johnson, Luke Lesassier, Wylie Martin, and R. M. Williamson.
Most of them would go on to serve with valor in the 1836 Revolution and in the Texas Republic. They didn't know that yet, of course, sitting there at Turtle Bayou in June of 1832. They were just men who'd had enough, picking up a pen instead of a rifle — at least for one afternoon.
The Revolution those resolutions helped set in motion was still four years away. But every long road starts with somebody taking that first step and writing it down.
What the marker says
Drafted and signed at Turtle Bayou on June 13, 1832, this first formal protest of Texas colonists against Mexican tyranny formed an early step in events that led eventually to the Texas Revolution of 1836. The settlers were protesting recent restrictive laws of Mexico designed to limit immigration and trade between the United States and Texas, passed because Mexico feared losing Texas to the U.S. In particular, citizens of anahuac were enraged by unreasonable acts of Col. Juan davis Bradburn, a local agent of the Mexican government. Alarm spread after Bradburn unjustly imprisoned several Texans, one of whom was the later Alamo hero, William B. Travis. Fighting broke out on June 9 and 12, 1832, between citizens and Bradburn's militia. Following this, the Texans met at Turtle Bayou to plan future action. Here they drew up resolutions censuring violations of Mexico's constitution by President Bustamante, encouraging resistance to his regime, and inviting all Texans to uphold the cause of civil liberty. Signers of the document, most of whom later served with valor in the 1836 Revolution and in the Texas republic, were John Austin, W. H. Jack, Hugh B. Johnson, Luke Lesassier, Wylie Martin, and R. M. Williamson.