Samuel Tubbs Angier, M.D.

Duane's take

The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just the voice carryin' the story down the road. Samuel Tubbs was born in Pembroke, Massachusetts, in 1792. Simple enough start.

But in 1812, he made a choice that not every man makes: he took the surname of his paternal grandmother, Katurah Angier. From that point forward, he was Samuel Tubbs Angier, and that name would travel a long way from Massachusetts before it was done. He earned his medical degree from Brown University in 1823, and then, just one year later, he was in Texas.

Eighteen twenty-four. He came as a member of Austin's Old 300 colony, which tells you something right there about the kind of man he was. You don't cross into that territory in that era without a certain willingness to meet the world on its own terms.

He became a prominent doctor in the area, which in those days meant long rides, hard cases, and communities depending on one man's knowledge to get them through. But medicine wasn't the whole of him. He was a Freemason.

He was active in civic affairs. And when Texas was moving toward something bigger, something that would define the republic, Angier was in the room. He served as a judge for the election of local delegates to the 1836 Constitutional Convention.

He also took part in efforts to build a system of public education for the Republic of Texas. A man tending to the body, the law, and the future of learning all at once. Samuel Tubbs Angier died in West Columbia in 1867.

Born in Massachusetts with one name, he chose another, crossed into a young Texas, and spent his life building something that outlasted him.

What the marker says

Samuel Tubbs, born in Pembroke, Massachusetts in 1792, took the surname of his paternal grandmother, Katurah Angier, in 1812. He received his medical degree from Brown University in 1823 and in 1824 came to Texas as a member of Austin's Old 300 colony. Prominent area doctor, Angier also was active in civic affairs, was a Freemason, and served as a judge for the election of local delegates to the 1836 Constitutional Convention. He also participated in efforts to establish a system of public education for the Republic of Texas. Angier died in West Columbia in 1867. (1997)