DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells this one, and I'll do my best to honor it the way it deserves. Now, some men seem like they were born with history already waiting on them. Timothy Pickering Jones came into this world on November 22, 1814, and from that very first birthday, time and Texas were already conspiring together.
Here's the detail that'll stop you cold if you let it: he entered Texas on his birthday, 1835. Twenty-one years to the day after he first drew breath, he crossed into a land that was about to catch fire. You want to talk about arriving right on time — that is arriving right on time.
And Texas did catch fire. The War for Independence broke out, 1835 into 1836, and Jones was in it as an officer. While men all around him were deciding what kind of country this place would become, Timothy Pickering Jones was standing on the side that wanted it free.
But the wars weren't finished with him — or maybe he wasn't finished with the wars. When the Mexican War came calling, Jones answered, this time as a Captain, commanding a company of his own. And then, 1861, Colonel of the Sixth Tennessee Regiment.
Three conflicts. Officer, Captain, Colonel. A man who kept climbing in rank the way some men keep climbing a hard hill — because that's simply what he did.
He died in Texas, October 18, 1904. The same Texas he rode into on his birthday all those decades before. He came in on a birthday, and Texas kept him to the end.
Some arrivals, friend, are not coincidences. They're just destiny running a little bit ahead of the calendar.
What the marker says
Star and Wreath Born November 22, 1814. Entered Texas on his birthday 1835. An officer in the Texas War for Independence 1835-36. Captain of a company in the Mexican War. Colonel Sixth Tennessee Regiment 1861. Died in Texas, October 18, 1904. Erected by the State of Texas 1962