DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm going to let the story breathe a little. William B. DeWees — born 1799, died 1878 — came to Texas from Kentucky in 1822, back when Texas wasn't Texas at all.
It was part of Mexico. Now that takes a particular kind of nerve, or a particular kind of restlessness, or maybe both. He arrived and got himself counted among Stephen F.
Austin's famous 'Old 300' colonists, receiving a large land grant in 1824. He worked as a blacksmith and a trader — a man who could shoe your horse and sell you something useful, which made him about as welcome as rain in a drought. Then came 1836, and the Texas Revolution, and Columbus got burned.
Just gone. And when the smoke cleared, DeWees didn't pack up and head back to Kentucky. No, he laid out the new town — the present town — and gave land for a courthouse and a school.
Land he owned, land he gave. That's the kind of wager you make on a future you believe in. But here's the thing about William B.
DeWees that keeps him speakin' to us still — he wrote it all down. His letters, published in 1852 as 'Letters from an Early Settler of Texas to A Friend,' gave the world something rare: an eyewitness account of the Runaway Scrape, that desperate flight of settlers during the revolution, and of what life actually looked like in colonial Texas. History books can tell you what happened.
DeWees told you what it felt like. That's a different thing entirely.
What the marker says
(1799-1878) Early Texas settler. Came here from Kentucky, 1822, when Texas was part of Mexico. Received a large land grant in 1824 as one of Stephen F. Austin's "Old 300" colonists. Worked as blacksmith and trader. After Columbus was burned in Texas Revolution, 1836, he laid out new (present) town and gave land for courthouse and school. His correspondence, published (1852) as "Letters from an Early Settler of Texas to A Friend," provided valuable eyewitness accounts of the "Runaway Scrape" of the revolution, and life in colonial Texas.