DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker is my guide here, and this is how I tell it. Thomas H. Mays — now there's a man who left his mark on Bastrop in just about every way a man can, and then vanished into mystery at the end.
Born in Virginia in 1802, he made his way to Texas from Tennessee in 1830, back when Texas was still a gamble and the land was wide open. And wide open land, it turns out, is exactly what a man like Thomas Mays was built for. By 1834, he had already made himself indispensable — appointed Bastrop's very first municipal surveyor, walking those streets, drawing those lines, platting the city's new layout into something that would last.
He was the man who, in a real sense, put Bastrop on paper. Then came 1836, and Thomas Mays did what so many men of his time did — he answered the call. He joined the Texian Army, riding with a company called the Mina Volunteers under Colonel Edward Burleson.
At the Battle of San Jacinto, he took a wound to the leg. Not the kind of story that ends a man, but the kind that follows him home. And home he went — back to Bastrop, where he took up the work of deputy surveyor for Bastrop County.
The county this time, not just the city. The man just kept expanding his territory. Politics came next.
City alderman in 1838, associate justice in 1839 — Thomas Mays was threading himself into the fabric of this place stitch by stitch. He wed Arie C. Ellis, and the two of them raised their children in Bastrop, building out a large homestead that included this very site, right here, in the mid-1800s.
And then, on April 18, 1862, Thomas H. Mays died. First surveyor.
Battle-wounded soldier. Alderman, justice, surveyor, father, homesteader. And where is he buried?
Nobody knows. The man who platted Bastrop's streets has no marked place on this earth. I'd call that ironic — except it feels a little too true to be funny.
What the marker says
Thomas H. Mays was born in 1802 in Virginia and emigrated to Texas from Tennessee in 1830. In 1834, he became Bastrop's first municipal surveyor and platted the city's new streets. Two years later, he was wounded in the leg at the Battle of San Jacinto while serving in the Texian Army with the "Mina Volunteers" led by Col. Edward Burleson. Upon his return to Bastrop, he became deputy surveyor for Bastrop County. He also held political office in Bastrop as city alderman (1838) and associate justice (1839). He wed Arie C. Ellis, and the couple reared their children in Bastrop, establishing a large homestead, including this site, in the mid-1800s. Mays died on April 18, 1862, but his burial location is unknown. (2005)