DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just here to do it justice. Now pull up a chair, because this one starts in Virginia and ends deep in Texas, and the miles in between meant something. Richard Ellis came into the world on February 14, 1781, born in Virginia.
He rose high in that state's courts — Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia, no less, by 1820. That's a man who'd already made his mark before Texas was even a word on most people's lips. But Texas had a way of calling people, and Richard Ellis answered.
In 1836 — that year so many things happened so fast — Ellis was there at the table. He signed the Texas Declaration of Independence. And then they trusted him to run the whole room: President of the Constitutional Convention of 1836.
Think about that. The document declaring Texas free, and the convention shaping what Texas would become — his name is on both. He wasn't done yet.
Ellis served as a Senator in the Congress of the Republic of Texas from 1836 all the way to 1840. Four years helping to build a nation from the ground up, deciding what the laws would say, what this place would be. Mary Dandridge Ellis made the journey too.
Born in Virginia in 1787, she was Richard's wife, and she stood in that same hard frontier chapter of Texas history. She died in Bowie County, Texas, on October 21, 1837 — gone before the republic she'd helped her husband serve had even found its footing. Richard lived on, and he died in Bowie County, Texas, on December 20, 1846.
Ellis County, Texas, carries his name to this day. This marker was erected by the State of Texas in 1936. A Virginia boy.
A Texas founder. And a county that still says his name every time somebody reads a map.
What the marker says
Born in Virginia February 14, 1781 Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia, 1820 Signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence and President of the Constitutional Convention, 1836 Senator in the Congress of the Republic of Texas, 1836 to 1840 Died in Bowie County, Texas December 20, 1846 Mary Dandridge Ellis Wife of Richard Ellis Born in Virginia 1787 Died in Bowie County, Texas October 21, 1837 Ellis County, Texas was named for Richard Ellis Erected by the State of Texas 1936