Robert Crudup

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say, straight from the stone itself. Now, some markers give you a whole life story. Names, battles, speeches, the works.

But every now and then, you pull up to one that says just enough, and lets the silence do the rest. This is one of those. Robert Crudup.

Born August tenth, eighteen-oh-four. Died July thirteenth, eighteen-seventy. And on the back of his headstone, carved plain as Texas limestone, four words that tell you this man had a seat at the table: Member of the Twelfth Legislature.

That's it. No grand eulogy, no list of accomplishments chiseled in stone. Just the dates that bookend a life, and the fact that somewhere along the way, Robert Crudup stood up and served in the Twelfth Legislature of Texas.

You have to appreciate a man whose monument doesn't oversell him. The headstone gives you the beginning, the end, and one thing worth remembering in between. Robert Crudup.

Make of that what you will.

What the marker says

Aug. 10, 1804 July 13, 1870 [Back of headstone] Crudup Member of the 12th Legislature