DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells this one, and I'm just the voice carrying it down the road. Now settle in, because this story starts in Kentucky, travels all the way to the heart of Texas, and ends with a piece of cloth that may have been flying over one of the most consequential moments this state has ever seen. Sarah Bradley was born on January 8, 1812, and she came to Texas as part of Stephen F.
Austin's Old 300 Colony back in 1823. Think about that for a second — 1823. She was barely past childhood, and already she was planting roots in a land that hadn't yet decided what it wanted to be.
She married Archelaus B. Dodson in 1835, and then the Revolution came knocking. Now, a lot of men rode off to answer that knock.
But Sarah Dodson did something quieter and something lasting. She took blue fabric, and white fabric, and red fabric, and she stitched together a flag — a single white star against those three colors — for her husband's army company. Here's where it gets worth remembering: that flag she made is believed to be one of two flags that flew as the Texas Declaration of Independence was signed.
One of two. And it is considered Texas' first tri-color Lone Star flag. Sarah Bradley Dodson passed on October 9, 1848.
She and Archelaus also donated the land for the very cemetery where this marker stands. A Kentucky girl who came west in 1823, put a needle and thread to history, and left a flag that may have watched a nation being born.
What the marker says
(January 8, 1812-October 9, 1848) Kentucky native Sarah Bradley came to Texas with Stephen F. Austin's Old 300 Colony in 1823. She married Archelaus B. Dodson in 1835, and made a blue, white, and red flag with a single white star for her husband's army company during the Texas Revolution. Her flag is believed to be one of two which flew as the Texas Declaration of Independence was signed and is considered Texas' first tri-color Lone Star flag. The Dodsons donated land for this cemetery.