DUANE
Duane's take
The way this marker tells it, here's the story of Angelina Bell Peyton Eberly — and it is some story. She came into this world around 1800, somewhere in Tennessee. And by 1822, she was already in Texas — which, if you know anything about 1822 Texas, tells you something about the kind of woman she was.
She and her husband, J. C. Peyton, ran an inn in San Felipe, which was serving at the time as the capital of the Austin colony.
Busy crossroads, big personalities, people passing through with grand ambitions. Angelina was right in the middle of all of it. Then Peyton died in 1834.
Two years later, in 1836, the widow married Jacob Eberly. And by 1842, she and Eberly had a hotel going in Austin. Now.
Here is where the story earns its place around the campfire. 1842. Austin. Angelina Eberly discovers something.
Men — moving quietly, moving at night — secretly removing records from the capital. Official records. The original records of the Republic of Texas.
Someone had decided those documents belonged somewhere else, and they were making that decision without asking anybody. Angelina Eberly asked nobody's permission either. She fired a cannon.
Just let that settle a moment. She fired a cannon. And with that shot — dramatic, loud, impossible to ignore — she started what history now calls the Archives War.
Those original records of the Republic of Texas? Rescued. After all of that, she settled into life at Indianola.
She died on March 15, 1860. And here's the final twist the marker makes sure you know: her burial place and her marker, sitting three-quarters of a mile to the northwest, were destroyed in a flood in 1875. Even the place that remembered her was taken by the water.
But a woman who fired a cannon to save the soul of a republic — that's not the kind of story a flood can finish.
What the marker says
(about 1800 - March 15, 1860) A Tennessean, Angelina Peyton came to Texas in 1822. With her husband, J. C. Peyton, she operated an inn in San Felipe, capital of the Austin colony. Peyton died in 1834; in 1836 the widow married Jacob Eberly. She and Eberly had a hotel in Austin by 1842, when Angelina Eberly discovered men secretly removing records from the capital. Firing a cannon, she started the "Archives War", and rescued the original records of the Republic of Texas. Later she lived at Indianola. Her burial place and marker (3/4 mile NW) were destroyed in a flood in 1875. Recorded - 1978