DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells this story, and I'm just the one holdin' it up to the light for you. Now. Before there was much of a Texas to speak of, a man named Robert Justus Kleberg was already on his way to it.
He came to Texas in 1834 — no fanfare in the record, just the fact of his arrival, which tells you something all on its own. He'd been born in Herstelle, Germany, on September 10, 1803. Crossed an ocean and a whole lot of uncertain country before he found himself standing on Texas soil.
And he didn't exactly ease into the place. Because not long after he arrived, there was a battle to fight. San Jacinto.
That name echoes through Texas history like a crack of thunder that never quite finishes rolling. And Robert Justus Kleberg was there — fighting in Captain Moseley Baker's Company. Whatever that field looked and smelled and sounded like that day, Kleberg was in the middle of it.
He came through. And what a man does after a thing like that says a great deal about him. Kleberg went on to serve as a Senator in the State Legislature.
The man had gone from a village in Germany to a battlefield to the halls of Texas government. He died at Yorktown, Texas, on October 23, 1888. And here's where the story finds its quiet, lasting note — a Texas county was named in his honor.
Out there on the map, the name Kleberg persists. That's not nothing. That's the land itself remembering.
What the marker says
who came to Texas in 1834. Fought at San Jacinto in Captain Moseley Baker's Company. Senator in the State Legislature. Born in Herstelle, Germany, September 10, 1803. Died at Yorktown, Texas, October 23, 1888. A Texas county was named in his honor.