DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll pass it along just as it stands. Now, you want to talk about a life that covered some ground — and I mean that in every sense of the word. Charles S.
Taylor was born in London, England, in 1808. London, England. And somehow, some way, this man ends up in Nacogdoches, Texas, by 1830, and he never really left.
Thirty-five years he called this place home, right up until November 1, 1865, when he died here on this very ground. But let's not get ahead of ourselves, because what happened in between those years is worth the telling. Charles Taylor put his name on the Texas Declaration of Independence.
Let that settle for a moment. A man born in London, England, signed the document that told the world Texas was its own thing, standing on its own two feet. He didn't stop there, either.
He served as Land Commissioner and as Chief Justice of Nacogdoches County — the kind of titles that meant something heavy in a young, rough-edged republic still figuring out what it was. And through all of it — the republic, the statehood, the decades of change rolling through East Texas — Taylor stayed right here in Nacogdoches. From 1830 to 1865, this was his ground.
The State of Texas saw fit to remember him here in 1936, and standing where his home once stood, it's hard not to feel the weight of that long arc — London to Nacogdoches, a signed declaration, a life of public service, and a man who, when it was all said and done, died exactly where he'd chosen to be.
What the marker says
(1808-1865) Citizen of Nacogdoches, 1830-1865 A signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence Land commissioner and Chief Justice of Nacogdoches County Born in London, England in 1808 Died here November 1, 1865 Erected by the State of Texas 1936