Robert Starke Armistead

Duane's take

Here's the story as the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Robert Starke Armistead. Born November the fifth, 1800.

And if you're going to understand this man, you need to understand the world he walked into when he and his wife Ann packed up everything they had in Alabama and pointed themselves toward Texas in 1835. Now, 1835 in Texas was not a casual decision. That was a place on the edge of something enormous, and Robert Armistead knew it.

He showed up just in time to serve in the Republic of Texas army in 1836. Not long after that, when General Vasquez came calling on San Antonio in 1842, Armistead was there again, with the forces defending the city. Some men talk about being present for history.

Robert Armistead just kept showing up. Then comes 1845, and somebody had the idea to create Baylor University. When they sat down to name the charter trustees, Robert Starke Armistead's name was on that list.

Right there at the founding. He and Ann had settled near this very site by then, running what the marker calls a large agricultural enterprise. In 1863, the Armisteads adopted a daughter.

They named her Sallie. A family, rooted deep in Washington County soil. Robert died June the fourteenth, 1866, and this graveyard, the one that marks the spot where his story is told in stone, it began with him.

Every family needs a place to keep its people. Robert Armistead became the reason this one exists.

What the marker says

(November 5, 1800 - June 14, 1866) Robert Starke Armistead and his wife Ann came to Texas from Alabama in 1835. He served in the Republic of Texas army in 1836 and with forces defending San Antonio during the Vasquez Invasion in 1842. When Baylor University was created in 1845, he was a charter trustee. Settling near this site, the Armisteads operated a large agricultural enterprise and in 1863 adopted a daughter, Sallie. This family graveyard was begun upon Robert's death in 1866. Recorded - 1990