DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say — and friend, this one carries some weight. Now, Grimes County commissioned a marker back in 1936, erected by the State of Texas, and what it sets out to do is something ambitious. It doesn't just honor one man.
It honors a whole constellation of people who lived in this vicinity during the days of the Republic. Let me walk you through them, because each name on this stone is a thread in a very large story. We start at the top with Colonel Benjamin Fort Smith and Dr.
Robert C. Neblett — both veterans of the War of 1812. Before Texas was even a dream worth dreaming on paper, these men had already answered a call to arms.
And Colonel Benjamin F. Smith — note the middle initial, F, not Fort — he goes on to serve in the Black Hawk War of 1832. This county was drawing in people who had already seen a thing or two.
Now 1832 is a busy year on this marker. That's when Texas held its First Convention, and three men from this vicinity stood in that room: Jared E. Groce, Joshua Hadley, and William Robinson.
A year later, the Second Convention of 1833, and Jared E. Groce returns — a man who clearly had opinions and the standing to voice them — joined this time by Francis Holland and Jesse Grimes. Two conventions.
Some of the same faces. Texas was working something out. Then comes the Consultation of 1835, and Joshua Hadley shows up again — that man traveled — alongside Dr.
George M. Patrick. And that same year, Francis Holland and Anthony Drew Kennard are soldiers in the Army.
Sarah Rudolph Dodson, meanwhile, made a flag for a military company of the Army of Texas in 1835. Let that sit with you a moment. While men were drilling and debating, she was stitching the symbol they'd march under.
Then 1836. The front of this marker names two men who signed the Texas Declaration of Independence: Benjamin Briggs Goodrich and Jesse Grimes. Jesse Grimes, who'd been to the conventions, who'd been in this fight from the beginning — he put his name on that document.
And Francis Holland and Michael Kennard, John F. Martin, Dr. Verplank Ackerman, and William P.
Zuber — soldiers in the Army that year. But 1836 also brings the names that don't come home. The back of this marker lists the martyrs of the Alamo from this vicinity: Tapley Holland, John Camp Goodrich, Alfred Calvin Grimes.
Three men. Gone at the Alamo. And yet from the same ground, the same neighboring families and farms, Anderson Buffington and Benjamin Fort Smith — there's that name again — are named heroes of San Jacinto.
Victory and loss, carved into the same stone, because that's how it actually happened. The marker doesn't stop at independence. Robert Holman Dunham was massacred in Mexico in 1842.
That's the word the marker uses — massacred. This was not a clean or distant peace. Then there is Kenneth Lewis Anderson, Vice President of the Republic, who died in Anderson on July 3, 1845.
The town and the man share a name, and this marker simply records that he died there, on that day. And William Carley, veteran of the Mexican War of 1846 — one more man from this vicinity, one more war. The marker closes by gathering up everyone it couldn't name individually: all other pioneers who lived in this vicinity during the days of the Republic.
That phrase does a lot of quiet work. It says: we know there were more. We know the record is incomplete.
We're honoring the unnamed too. Two conventions. Two wars before Texas.
The Alamo. San Jacinto. A massacre.
A Republic's Vice President. A woman and her flag. All of it rooted in one county in Texas, all of it remembered on one stone.
That's what this marker is doing — holding a whole era in its arms and refusing to let go.
What the marker says
(FRONT) In memory of Colonel Benjamin Fort Smith, Dr. Robert C. Neblett, veterans of The War of 1812; Colonel Benjamin F. Smith, veteran of the Black Hawk War, 1832; Jared E. Groce, Joshua Hadley, William Robinson, delegates to the First Convention of Texas, 1832; Jared E. Groce, Francis Holland, Jesse Grimes, delegates to the Second Convention of Texas, 1833; Joshua Hadley, Dr. George M. Patrick, delegates to the Consultation, 1835; Benjamin Briggs Goodrich, Jesse Grimes, signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence, 1836; Francis Holland, Anthony Drew Kennard, soldiers in the Army, 1835; Sarah Rudolph Dodson, who made a flag for a military company, Army of Texas, 1835. Erected by the State of Texas 1936 (BACK) In memory of Tapley Holland, John Camp Goodrich, Alfred Calvin Grimes, martyrs of the Alamo; Anderson Buffington, Benjamin Fort Smith, heroes of San Jacinto; Francis Holland, Michael Kennard, John F. Martin, Dr. Verplank Ackerman, William P. Zuber, Soldiers in the Army, 1836; Robert Holman Dunham who was massacred in Mexico, 1842; Kenneth Lewis Anderson, Vice President of the Republic, who died in Anderson, July 3, 1845; William Carley, veteran of the Mexican War, 1846; and all other pioneers who lived in this vicinity during the days of the Republic.