DUANE
Duane's take
Here's the marker's own account, as best I can tell it — the story of William A. Waugh, laid down in La Salle County. Now settle in, because this man packed several lifetimes into one.
Born in Ohio in 1832, William A. Waugh was the kind of fellow who heard about California gold in 1849 and apparently decided, well, why not. He went.
And he found it. Most men who chased that particular dream came home with nothing but worn-out boots and a hard lesson. Waugh came home with something to show for it.
What he did with those California years the marker doesn't spell out in full — but by 1856, he had planted himself near the Cibolo Creek Crossing on the Laredo-San Antonio Road. Now mind you, La Salle County didn't even exist yet. Waugh was out there before the county lines were drawn, before the paperwork caught up to the frontier.
That's the kind of man we're talking about. Then came the Cortina War — that's what they called the border raids — and Waugh served as a Texas Ranger during that stretch of trouble. Briefly, the marker says, but briefly on the Texas frontier carried its own weight.
When the dust settled, Waugh built a life in layers: merchant, district court clerk, justice of the peace. He raised three daughters and a son. And by the time William A.
Waugh died in 1901, the marker says he had contributed significantly to progress in that locality — which is the kind of quiet, measured praise that, out here on these roads, tends to mean more than it lets on.
What the marker says
(1832-1901) An Ohio native who found gold in California in 1849, William A. Waugh settled near the Cibolo Creek Crossing on the Laredo-San Antonio Road in 1856, before La Salle County was created. Waugh served briefly as a Texas Ranger during the border raids called the Cortina War. He was also a merchant, district court clerk, and justice of the peace. Father of three daughters and a son, Waugh contributed significantly to progress in this locality.