DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it — Reading Wood Black, Uvalde County, Texas. Now, not every founder of a Texas town was a Texan born and bred. Reading Wood Black came into this world in New Jersey, on September the twenty-third, 1830.
But by 1855, he had made his way to the edge of the Texas frontier and done something not many men manage — he founded a town. He called it Encino. You might know it better by its later name: Uvalde.
The very next year, 1856, Black was instrumental in the formation of Uvalde County itself. The man wasn't inclined to sit still. He served as county judge, as county commissioner, and as a state representative.
He threw his weight behind education. He was, by any measure, the kind of civic leader a young county needed. But then the country started pulling itself apart at the seams, and Reading Wood Black had opinions about that.
He was opposed to secession. In Texas, in those years, that was not a comfortable position to hold. As a result of that opposition, he was led to live in Mexico during the Civil War.
Not a voluntary Sunday stroll — led. Let that word do its work. When the war ended, Black came back to Uvalde.
And on October the third, 1867, he was killed there — in the very town he had founded. He was thirty-seven years old. A man who built something lasting, taken before he could see how far it would grow.
What the marker says
(Sept. 23, 1830 - Oct. 3, 1867) A native of New Jersey, Reading Wood Black founded the town of Encino (later renamed Uvalde) in 1855. The following year he was instrumental in the formation of Uvalde County. An active civic leader and supporter of education, Black served as county judge, county commissioner, and state representative. As a result of his opposition to secession, he was led to live in Mexico during the Civil War. Black was killed in Uvalde at the age of 37. Recorded - 1983.