DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Richard Brown. Born November 16, 1808, in the family of a Philadelphia doctor — a well-educated man who somehow ended up exactly where life gets most dangerous.
He fought for the Republic of Texas in 1836 and 1837, which already puts him in rare company. But that wasn't the end of his soldiering. Not by a long stretch.
In 1842, he joined the Mier Expedition — a mission to punish Mexican invasions of Texas. And that is where the story takes a turn that would make your blood run cold. Richard Brown was captured in Mexico.
And what came next was a lottery that no man ever wanted a ticket to. The prisoners were made to draw beans from a container. A black bean meant a firing squad.
A white bean meant you lived. Richard Brown reached in — and pulled a white bean. He lived.
But living had its own price. He was chained in prison for two years. Two years.
The well-educated son of a Philadelphia doctor, chained in a Mexican prison, having already cheated death by the luck of a single bean. When he finally came home to Texas, he didn't waste the life he'd managed to hold onto. He worked as a teacher, a surveyor, a farmer.
He helped found Pine Grove Church and Sharon Masonic Lodge — a man building community the same way he'd survived everything else: deliberately, steadily. In 1849, he married Nancy Jane Cook, and together they raised twelve children. Richard Brown died August 24, 1893.
One white bean. Twelve children. A whole life on the other side of the draw.
What the marker says
(November 16, 1808 - August 24, 1893) An 1836-37 Republic of Texas soldier who joined the 1842 Mier Expedition to punish Mexican invasions of Texas. Captured in Mexico, he escaped firing squad by drawing a white bean, but was chained in prison for two years. The well-educated son of a Philadelphia, PA. doctor, Brown worked as a teacher, surveyor, and farmer. Helped found Pine Grove Church and Sharon Masonic Lodge. In 1849 he married Nancy Jane Cook; they had twelve children.