DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker says about the man buried at this very spot. David G. Burnet.
Born 1788, died 1870. And in between those two years, he packed in enough living for three ordinary men — and enough stubbornness for about ten. The marker describes him plain and direct: a man who carried a gun in one pocket and a Bible in the other.
Now you can decide for yourself what that says about him, but I'll tell you this — Texas in 1836 probably needed exactly that kind of man. Burnet didn't arrive at Texas statesmanship by any easy road. As an idealistic young man, he took part in the Miranda Expeditions — 1806 and 1808 — riding out to help free Venezuela from Spain.
He nearly didn't make it back. Yellow fever almost took him right there. Then in 1817 he bought himself a trading post in Louisiana, but tuberculosis had other plans, and he had to sell it.
Now here's where the story turns strange and wonderful. Weak from the disease — not recovered, mind you, just weak — Burnet rode west into Texas. And he fell in with Comanches.
Not hostile Comanches. The marker calls them unusually friendly Comanches, which is a detail worth sitting with for a moment. He lived among them for eighteen months.
Eighteen months. Long enough that he became, according to the marker, an expert on the pre-settlement days of those Indians. A sickly man from a trading post in Louisiana, and the Comanches kept him alive long enough to become a scholar of their world.
By 1833, Burnet had turned toward Texas politics, just as Texas was beginning her fight for independence from Mexico. And then came 1836 — the year everything moved fast and nothing moved clean. He ran for the presidency of the Republic of Texas as a compromise candidate.
He won. By six votes. Six.
You could lose six votes between breakfast and noon on a bad day. But six votes it was, and suddenly David G. Burnet was Provisional President of Texas, from March 16th of 1836 all the way through October 22nd of 1836.
And that stretch of months — Lord, what months they were. His interim government had two main concerns: winning military victory, and not getting caught by Mexican troops. The marker says his government escaped those troops sometimes only by minutes.
Minutes. The provisional government of Texas, running for its life, buying time by the smallest margins history allows. Burnet held that chaotic thing together.
The marker calls him a cohesive force in the chaotic days of early Texas independence. But it's honest about the cost. His dour, quick-tempered disposition, it says, kept him from ever winning wide popularity.
He wasn't beloved. He was necessary — and those are two very different things. He had married Hannah Este in 1830.
They had four children together. And in the years after the revolution, he went on holding various offices under both the Republic and the State of Texas, carrying that same gun, that same Bible, that same difficult temper, all the way to 1870. A man of strong principle, the marker says.
Not a warm man. Not a popular man. But the kind of man who survives yellow fever and tuberculosis and eighteen months on the Texas frontier and a six-vote election and Mexican troops breathing down his neck — and still shows up for the next office.
Six votes. That's what stood between David G. Burnet and obscurity.
And here in Galveston, this is where he rests.
What the marker says
(1788-1870) Provisional President of Texas (March 16, 1836 - Oct. 22, 1836). A man of strong principle who carried a gun in one pocket and a Bible in the other, Burnet acted as a cohesive force in the chaotic days of early Texas independence, though his dour, quick-tempered disposition kept him from ever winning wide popularity. As an idealistic youth, he took part in the Miranda Expeditions (1806 and 1808) to free Venezuela from Spain, almost losing his life to yellow fever. He bought a trading post, 1817, in Louisiana, but had to sell it after developing tuberculosis. Though weak from the disease, he rode to west Texas, where he fell into the hands of unusually friendly Comanches. He lived with them for 18 months, thus becoming an expert on the pre-settlement days of these Indians. Burnet began his statesman's career in 1833 when Texas was beginning her fight for independence from Mexico. In 1836, he ran as a compromise candidate for the presidency of the Republic of Texas and won by 6 votes. His interim government was mainly concerned with winning military victory and escaping, sometimes only by minutes, Mexican troops. In later years, he held various offices under the Republic and State of Texas. He married Hannah Este in 1830 and they had four children. Recorded - 1967