1936—Grave of Henderson Yoakum, Huntsville, Texas.

In her 1936 presentation to the General Assembly. State Regent Mrs. Alvin Valentine Lane stated that the state chairman of the Memorials and Marking Historic Spots Committee, Mrs. Henderson Yoakum Robinson of Huntsville, had reported “the dedication of the restoration of the monument at Huntsville, Texas, of Colonel Henderson Yoakum, first Historian of Texas.” Mrs. Robinson’s interest in this project can be readily understood since she was the widow of a descendant and namesake of Colonel Yoakum. The only record located which pertains to this marker indicates that an informal dedication was held, at which flowers were placed on the grave, followed by the completion of the straightening and cleaning of the monument.

Colonel Yoakum was a graduate of the United States Military Academy who arrived In Texas from Tennessee late in 1845. He was a veteran officer of the Mexican War, an active member of the Masonic Lodge, and the author of the first comprehensive history of Texas. Following his death in 1856, a beautiful white marble obelisk monument was erected at his grave in Huntsville’s Oakwood Cemetery, the gift of the citizens of the town.

No evidence of a DAC marker has been found at the site.

14 May 1937—Texas Navy, 1836-1845, Galveston, Texas.

The earliest remaining marker placed by the Texas Society was dedicated on May 14, 1937, along the seawall in Menard Park in Galveston, honoring the Texas Navy of 1836-1845, composed of four small vessels whose purpose was to keep open Texas ports which were threatened by Mexico. The monument, a Texas granite boulder bearing a bronze tablet dated April 21, 1937, commemorated the heroic part played in the struggle for Texas’ independence by the only state navy in the nation. Beneath the inscription were reliefs of a full-rigged sailing vessel and the DAC emblem. The program, presided over by the immediate past State Regent, Mrs. Alvin Valentine Lane, featured music by the 69th Coast Artillery Band and flag observances by the United States Navy and Coast Artillery Units. The May 14 dedication date was the anniversary of the signing of the Velasco Treaty by representatives of Mexico and Texas. The ceremony was the first public activity of Mrs. Henry Houston Hawley, Sr.’s, administration as State Regent.

06 Oct 1941—Grave of George Campbell Childress, Galveston, Texas.

A DAC marker honoring a former State Regent, Mrs. Henry Lee Tenison, was dedicated on October 6, 1941. A granite boulder was placed on the grounds of Galveston’s Rosenberg School to commemorate the grave site of George Campbell Childress, author of the Texas Declaration of Independence, on the hundredth anniversary of his death. The ceremony, during which the marker was presented to the City of Galveston and the Rosenberg School, was broadcast over the radio. This project was completed during the term of Mrs. Frederick Brewster Ingram as State Regent.

1949—Arrival in Texas of Alonso De Leon, Rivera, Texas.

In 1949 a marker was placed at Rivera near Baffin Bay to commemorate the arrival of Alonso de Leon on a mission from Mexico in 1687. He came up the Salt River, as Olmas Creek was then known, which runs into Baffin Bay near Rivera and, by 1689, found the ruins of Fort Saint Louis, the first French settlement in Texas, which has been established by Rene Robert Cavalier, Sieur de La Salle, in 1685.

14 Feb 1951—Site of John Henniger Reagan Home, near Palestine, Texas.

John Henniger Reagan, 1818-1905, jurist and statesman, Postmaster General of the Confederate States of America, United States Senator, and first chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission, was honored with a DAC marker on February 14, 1951. Erected at the site of the front steps of the Reagan plantation home near Palestine, the five-foot marker of pink Texas granite cited Reagan as “a man whose life was devoted to the welfare of his fellow man…a man known as the ‘old Roman’….the Great Commander, the Grand Old Man of Texas.” A walkway leading from the gateway of the property to the marker had been constructed of bricks handmade by slaves on the Reagan plantation. The Reagan home was located near the site Fort Houston, established by General Sam Houston as a fort and stockade to protect settlers of the area.

Dedication of this marker was held in connection with the 1951 State Assembly in Palestine. Icy winter weather prevented travel to the Site, and the ceremony was held instead at the Parish House of St. Philip’s Episcopal Church. The marker was presented to Anderson County by Miss Mary Ethyl Walter, State Regent.

13 Feb 1952—First Sugar Refinery in Texas, Sugar Land, Texas.

On February 13, 1952, the Texas Society erected another historical marker at a cost of $550. The red granite marker bearing a large bronze plaque, placed in Sugar Land on the grounds of the Imperial Sugar Refinery at the site of the first sugar refinery in Texas, was unveiled by Mrs. Frank Garland Trau in her capacity as National Vice President of the Southern Section and dedicated by the State Historian, Mrs. Mason Briscoe of Richmond, who presented a history of the sugar industry in Texas. The marker noted that the area was a center for sugar mills from 1822 until 1908. DAC members present received gifts of sugar products from the company and, later, bound copies of the dedication speeches were sent to Mrs. Edward Rowland Barrow, State Regent, and other officers of the Society.

05 Oct 1956—Old Fort Griffin Cemetery, Bell County, Texas.

In her final Regent’s report to the 1957 General assembly, Mrs. Albert Earl Hudspeth mentioned the placement of the Texas Society’s latest historical marker:

At the suggestion of the Chairman of Marking Memorial and Historic Spots, Mrs. Richard Haines, we marked old Ft. Griffin at [near] Temple, Texas. Mrs. Haines has presented a splendid list of 80 places available and suitable for marking. Most of these were taken from Howard’s “Original Guide to Texas,” and will provide an excellent beginning for successive regimes.

Mrs. Haines, in her report to the national chairman of the Memorials and Marking Historic Spots Committee, commented on the Fort Griffin Cemetery marker:

On October 5, 1956, upon vote of the May Assembly, the Old Fort Griffin Cemetery, Bell County, Texas, was appropriately marked with a bronze marker suitably inscribed and set in concrete. The State Highway Department erected the marker for our society. Three members attended the simple but beautiful ceremony conducted by our State Chaplain, Mrs. O. L. Fletcher…..

The Fort Griffin Cemetery, located six and one-half miles southeast of Temple, took its name from the picket fort built in November, 1836, by George B. Erath and twenty Texas Rangers as a haven against Indians. The stockade was near the Little River Community and was known variously as “Fort Smith,” “Little River Fort,” and “Fort Griffin.” Though abandoned as a military post before the Santa Fe Expedition camped in its shelter June 24-29, 1841, the fort was used by settlers for many years afterward as a place of defense against the Indians.

Land for both the fort and nearby cemetery was donated by Moses Griffin from his headright league grant from the Mexican government. Believed to be the earliest cemetery in Bell County, the 140 by 160 foot cemetery plot contained fifty to sixty graves dating from 1839 to 1896, but only thirteen original tombstones remained in 1956. Before the marking ceremony, two granite markers were erected at the graves of Mrs. Omar Lester Fletcher’s grandparents, and three other markers were restored by Mrs. Fletcher. Fort Griffin itself had long since been destroyed, and all that remained of the stockade were a few timeworn timbers. A common grave for twelve soldiers of Texas militia, presumably killed in the Indian Wars, had also been destroyed and the neat rock fence which marked its location had been shattered. The cemetery also served as the final resting place for victims of the Bird Creek Indian battle, including Maximo Moreno, the Spanish land-grant empresario of the Bell County area.

The DAC bronze plaque was placed beside a granite 1936 Texas Centennial Marker commemorating Fort Griffin, and located on the road from Belton to Little River, State Highway 436, about 200 yards north of the entrance to Old Fort Griffin Cemetery, which has been owned by members the Hartrick family since they first settled near Little River Community in the days of Fort Griffin’s use. In later years a curve was removed from the old road near the two markers, and the new road passed to the south, concealing the markers from public view. The Texas Centennial Marker was subsequently moved to the edge of the improved road, but the DAC plaque has remained at its original location.

Oct 1957—La Lomita Mission, near Mission, Texas.

In October, 1957, during the term of Mrs. Mason Briscoe as State Regent, the Texas Society concluded another historical project which involved a DAC marker to commemorate La Lomita Chapel on the grounds of the Oblate Fathers’ Seminary near Mission, Texas. Believed by competent authorities to be older than the San Antonio missions, the chapel had been in continuous use since before 1824. The Society’s bronze plaque was placed on the south outside wall of Mission’s First State Bank and Trust Company, where traffic is required to stop before making a southward turn onto Highway 82 to reach the chapel, some three miles distant.

With priests and novices of Saint Peter’s Novitiate taking part, a ceremony was held at the chapel which was the “mission” from which the town took its name. Music was provided by the choir of the Novitiate. Those in attendance returned to the marker site for dedication of the plaque and presentation of it to the City of Mission, followed by a luncheon.

1959—Feast of the First Thanksgiving, 1541, Canyon, Texas.

Late in 1959 a marker was placed at a crossing in Palo Duro Canyon, now in the Palo Duro State Park near Amarillo, commemorating a feast of Thanksgiving held in 1541 proclaimed as a day for prayer and feasting by Padre Fray Juan de Padilla for Coronado and his troops seventy-nine years before the arrival of the Pilgrims in America. Though a monument had been erected previously in Amarillo to Father Padilla, the DAC marker commemorated the location of the thanksgiving feast itself.

It is known where Coronado and his troops in armored regalia entered the canyon to seek safety and refuge, though the steep sides of the canyon seem to make it impossible for armored men on horseback to have made entry at any point.

No trace remains today of this marker, which was placed during Mrs. Richard D. Haines’ term as State Regent.

09 Jan 1960—Las Palmas, near Brownsville, Texas.

On January 9, 1960, the Texas Society dedicated a highway marker at Brownsville at the intersection of International Boulevard and Southmost Road commemorating Las Palmas, the second temporary settlement in the United States and the earliest outside of Florida established by Europeans. In existence from early summer of 1520 to 1523 and located on what is now the Rabb Ranch, seven miles South of the marker location, Las Palmas was founded by Diego de Carmago, representative of Governor Francisco de Garay of Jamaica.

Carmago arrived with three vessels, 150 settlers, seven horsemen, some artillery, a supply of bricks and lime, and masons who were to build a fort. They entered the mouth of the Rio Grande River about where Boca Chica is now located, sailed up the stream for a few miles until they came to a grove of palms and there established a settlement. They ascended the river for a distance of about seventeen miles and landed near a group of Indian villages, where they were received as friends. The Spaniards remained in the area for almost three years before the Indians, exasperated by the increasing demands of the Europeans, rebelled and drove them out, pursuing them in canoes as far as the mouth of the river in the spring of 1523. Governor Garay arrived in the region himself with sixteen vessels and many settlers, but decided to remove to the Panuce area because of the dissatisfaction of the natives.

The site is famous for the grove of palms for which the settlement was named. The grove has stood for more than four hundred years and has weathered hurricanes, freezes and droughts. The history of the place was derived from an old Spanish map made by Cortino in 1502, which showed that what is now the Rio Grande River was at the time — ten years after Columbus discovered America — called Las Palmas. The palms grew from the river on both sides for about ten miles, though it is not known how the seeds were first planted. The trees are still in their native state, and this is the only large native Las Palmas grove in the United States outside of Florida. About thirty-five acres are covered by the grove.

At a luncheon following the dedication ceremony, Robert Runyan of Brownsville, Valley botanist, told the group that the fruit of the Las Palmas was similar to the date and that the trees bloom in June and mature in September. He pointed out that, though the trees had withstood heat, cold. and drought for more than four hundred years, they had not been classified or named until a few months previous to the erection of the DAC marker.

In recent years this marker, also erected during the administration of Mrs. Richard D. Haines, has disappeared.

25 Nov 1961—Presidio, near Marfa, Texas.

On November 25, 1961, the historic settlement of Presidio near Marfa, Texas, was commemorated during the term of Mrs. Harry Joseph Morris as State Regent with a marker placed on the highway leading from Alpine to Marfa. The marker noted the designation of Presidio, located at the confluence of the Concho and Rio Grande Rivers, as the oldest town in America, having been the site of a settlement for more than ten thousand years. The marker also called attention to the fact that the location was the site of the first recorded wagon train crossing into Texas. The train, headed by Antonio de Espejo, reached the area on December 10, 1582. This project was a joint venture with the Texas Society of the Children Of the American Revolution.

17 Mar 1963—Home of Ashly Jernigan, near Panola, Texas.

A Texas Medallion secured by the Texas Society for the home of Mr. and Mrs. J. DeWitt McJimsey in Harrison County was dedicated on March 17, 1963, by Mrs. Mason Briscoe, state chairman of the Memorials and Marking Historic Spots Committee. The marker was accepted by Mrs. McJimsey, a grand-daughter of the original owner. The substantial brick house with its six chimneys was built in 1842 by Ashly Jernigan who, with his sister, migrated from South Carolina to Texas in that year. The Jernigan house is located on a farm-to-market road north of Panola, near the Louisiana border. This ceremony was held near the conclusion of Mrs. Harry Joseph Morris’ term as State Regent.

Left to right:  Mrs. Harry Joseph Morris, State Regent, TSSDAC; Mr. & Mrs. J.D. McKimsey; Mrs. Mason Briscoe, Chairman Memorial and Marking.  Photo provided by Honorable Philip Livingston Chapter.

23 Feb 1964—Governor Beauford Halbert Jester, Corsicana, Texas.

A bronze memorial plaque was placed by the Texas Society on the east wall of the recreation pavilion of the newly named Beauford Halbert Jester Memorial Park in Corsicana on February 23. 1964, while Mrs. Richard N. Grammer was serving as State Regent. The city park was renamed in honor of the former Texas governor, the first to die in office, largely through the efforts of the Louis Guion Chapter of Corsicana. A tea followed the dedication ceremony, which was arranged by Mrs. Chaillos Cross, state chairman of the Historic Landmarks and Memorials Committee, and Mrs. Will M. Miller, Regent of Louis Guion Chapter. The dedication ceremony and tea preceded the 1964 State Assembly held in Corsicana.

07 Mar 1966—Morton Cemetery, near Richmond, Texas.

The Morton Cemetery near Richmond, Texas, was the scene of a marker dedication held on March 7, 1966, during the annual State Assembly. John and Jerry Barnett, members of the Texas Society of the Children of the American Colonists, served as Color Bearers during the impressive ceremony, which was closed poignantly with taps by a bugler.

The Fort Bend County cemetery had been in use since 1822 and was the resting place of a number of famous early Texans. including Jane Long, the “Mother of Texas”; Mirabeau B. Lamar, “Father of Texas Education” and second president of the Republic of Texas; John Gillespie, who came with Stephen F. Austin when he founded his colony; “Deaf’ Smith, famous Texas scout and hero of the Battle of San Jacinto; and numerous Confederate Army veterans. This marking project was an activity of Mrs. Grady Kirby’s term as State Regent.

03 Jun 1973—Caney Cemetery, near Bay City, Texas.

The most recent historical marker placed by the Texas Society was dedicated on June 3, 1973, at the Caney Cemetery near Bay City in Matagorda County in southeast Texas. The marker was the culmination of the State Regent’s Project of Mrs. Martin D. Wolfe.

The cemetery was in use perhaps as early as 1826 or 1827, and in June, 1873, it was deeded to the Caney Church. The l00-year-old cemetery was the burial place of a number of early residents of the area. The marker was unveiled by descendants of John Matthews, a prominent Texan of early days who was buried in the Caney Cemetery. More than one hundred area residents and visitors were present for the dedication ceremony.