DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of the official marker for Thomas Jefferson Rusk, standing in Nacogdoches County. Now, some men seem born to be in the right place at exactly the right moment. Thomas Jefferson Rusk was one of those men — except he kept showing up at the right moment, over and over again, until fate finally ran out of moments to give him.
He came into the world in South Carolina in 1803. By the time he was twenty-one, he had passed the bar. The law suited him, and he took up its practice in Georgia, where in 1827 he married Mary F.
Cleveland. Life in Georgia might have been the whole story. But then Rusk laid eyes on Nacogdoches.
He was so taken with the place that he sent for his family, became a citizen of Mexico in 1835, and planted himself in East Texas for good. The timing, as it turned out, was something. Texas was stirring.
The independence movement was building heat, and Rusk didn't stand on the sidelines. He organized a group of Nacogdoches volunteers and joined Stephen F. Austin's army.
The provisional government took notice and named him inspector general of the army. Then, as a delegate from Nacogdoches, he signed the Texas Declaration of Independence. They appointed him secretary of war before the ink was dry.
And when it came time to settle things at San Jacinto, Rusk was there — fighting alongside Sam Houston on the day that changed everything. After the battle, he served briefly as commander in chief of the army of the Republic of Texas. Then came another appointment as secretary of war, and a commission as major general of the Texas Militia.
The Republic of Texas elected him to Congress, where he chaired the House Military Committee. By 1840, he stepped down as chief justice of the State Supreme Court to return to a law practice in Nacogdoches. A quieter life, maybe.
But in 1843 the militia came calling again, and Congress elected him major general once more. When he came home in June of that year, Rusk turned his attention to something close to his heart — the establishment of Nacogdoches University. The man built things when he wasn't defending them.
In 1845 he presided over the convention to annex Texas to the United States, serving as its president. Then in 1846, he was elected to a seat in the United States Senate. There, alongside Senator Sam Houston, he helped establish the southwestern boundary of Texas.
He pushed for a transcontinental railroad route through Texas. The work kept coming, and Rusk kept doing it. But 1856 brought a blow that undid something in him.
Mary Rusk died of tuberculosis. The woman he had sent for, the woman he had brought to this wild corner of the world back in 1835 — gone. Thomas Jefferson Rusk grew ill.
He grew despondent. And in 1857, he took his own life. There's a long pause a story like this deserves.
A man who signed a declaration, fought a battle, led an army, built a university, drew a boundary, and gave decades of himself to Texas — ended not by any enemy the Republic could name. Sometimes the weight a man carries isn't written on any marker. But the rest of it is, right here in Nacogdoches.
What the marker says
(1803-1857) Born in South Carolina, Thomas Jefferson Rusk showed an early aptitude for the law, passing the bar at age twenty-one. He began to practice law in Georgia, where he married Mary F. Cleveland in 1827. Rusk was so taken with Nacogdoches that he sent for his family and became a citizen of Mexico in 1835. Quickly becoming involved in the independence movement, he organized a group of Nacogdoches volunteers and joined Stephen F. Austin's army. The provisional government named him inspector general of the army. He signed the Texas Declaration of Independence as a delegate from Nacogdoches and was appointed secretary of war. Rusk fought with Sam Houston at the Battle of San Jacinto and was briefly commander in chief of the army of the Republic of Texas. After the war, Rusk was again appointed secretary of war and major general of the Texas Militia. Elected to the Republic of Texas Congress, he chaired the House Military Committee. In 1840, he retired from his position as chief justice of the State Supreme Court to return to a successful law practice in Nacogdoches, but he was called again to the militia in 1843 and was soon elected major general by the Congress. Returning home in June, Rusk focused his energies on the establishment of Nacogdoches University. Following his term as president of the convention of 1845 to annex Texas to the United States, Rusk was elected to a U. S. Senate seat in 1846. He and Senator Sam Houston established the southwestern boundary of Texas, and he promoted construction of a transcontinental railroad route through Texas. Mary Rusk died of tuberculosis in 1856, and an ill and despondent T. J. Rusk took his own life in 1857. (1999)