DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about San Augustine, Texas — so let's ride. Now, before we get too deep into East Texas pine country, I want you to understand something about San Augustine. This place didn't just grow up on its own.
It sat at a crossroads of ambition — empires, republics, revolutions — and it absorbed every bit of it. Way back in the 1600s, this whole stretch of eastern Texas was contested ground, claimed by both France and Spain, and neither one was inclined to be polite about it. Spain, to back her claim, did what empires do — she drew a road.
In 1691, El Camino Real — The King's Highway — was chartered out of Mexico and ran right past this very site. Then in 1717, Spain established Mission Dolores de los Aies nearby. A highway and a mission.
That's how you plant a flag when the flag alone won't do it. For generations, the Ayish Indians and Spaniards inhabited this land. Then, in the late 1790s, someone named Richard Sims came along — and he was just the first.
Because once Richard Sims showed up, the rest followed. John Quinalty. Edmond Quirk.
Families bearing names like Broocks, Cullens, Cartwrights, Hortons, Hustons, Prathers, and others. East Texas was filling in, one determined family at a time. By 1824, the settlement had itself a water mill to grind corn meal.
Two years later, in 1826, a cotton gin. Now if you know anything about early Texas settlements, those two things — corn meal and cotton — are not small details. That's a community deciding it intends to stay.
But staying required defending. In 1827, the Battle of Ayish Bayou came to call. Colonel Prather and sixty-nine men put down a Fredonian uprising over land titles right here in this territory.
Sixty-nine men. Prather didn't negotiate. He showed up.
Then in 1833, a man named Thomas McFarland laid the town off — gave it shape, gave it boundaries. San Augustine was no longer just a settlement. It was a town.
And what a town it would become. When 1836 arrived and Texas stood up and declared herself, San Augustine was ready. She sent S.
W. Blount and E. O.
LeGrand as delegates to sign the Declaration of Independence. And she didn't stop there — she fielded three companies to fight in the War for Independence. Three companies.
That's not a town hedging its bets. That's a town all in. Now here's where San Augustine's story gets almost hard to believe, except the marker doesn't lie.
The statesmen this one town produced for the Republic of Texas include — and I want you to hear every name — K. L. Anderson, Vice President; J.
A. Greer, Secretary of the Treasury; Wm. Holman, Congressman; and J.
Pinckney Henderson, who served as Minister to England and France and later became the first Governor of the state of Texas. The first. And San Augustine could also claim Oran M.
Roberts, the sixteenth governor. And if that weren't enough, San Augustine was home to Edward Clark, who in 1965 served as the United States Ambassador to Australia. Many historic sites in San Augustine are marked, the marker tells us.
And after everything you just heard — the rival empires, the King's Highway, the battle, the three companies, the vice presidents and governors and ambassadors — I'd say that's the quietest understatement in all of East Texas. San Augustine wasn't just an early eastern gate to Texas. It was the kind of gate that made you wonder what else was waiting on the other side.
What the marker says
An early eastern gate to Texas, in area claimed in 1600s by both France and Spain. To back her claim, Spain in 1691 chartered from Mexico past this site El Camino Real (The King's Highway) and established nearby in 1717 Mission Dolores de los Aies. Inhabited by Ayish Indians and Spaniards until the late 1790s, when Richard Sims came and was soon followed by John Quinalty, Edmond Quirk and families of Broocks, Cullens, Cartwrights, Hortons, Hustons, Prathers and others. By 1824 the settlement had a water mill to grind corn meal; in 1826, a cotton gin. In the 1827 Battle of Ayish Bayou, Col. Prather and 69 men put down Fredonian uprising over land titles. The town was laid off in 1833 by Thomas McFarland. In 1836 it sent as delegates to sign Declaration of Independence S. W. Blount and E. O. LeGrand; fielded 3 companies to fight in the War for Independence. Its Republic of Texas statesmen included vice-president K. L. Anderson; J. A. Greer, Secretary of the Treasury; Wm. Holman, Congressman; J. Pinckney Henderson, Minister to England and France, and later the first Governor of the state. Oran M. Roberts was 16th governor. Home of the 1965 United States Ambassador to Australia Edward Clark. Many historic sites are marked. (1966)