Andrew Jackson McGown
Crockett, Houston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(1816 -- 1870) Tennessee native Andrew Jackson McGown came to Texas in 1835 to fight with the Texas Army in the war for independence from Mexico. A participant in the Battle of San Jacinto, he later helped establish the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Texas, serving as a pioneer circuit rider until his death. McGown founded "The Texas Presbyterian" and helped establish Andrew Female College in Huntsville. A royal arch mason, he also served as Grand Chaplain of Forest Lodge No. 19.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
A Tennessee native, Andrew Jackson McGown came to Texas in 1835 and fought in the revolution against Mexico, taking part in the decisive Battle of San Jacinto. He went on to help plant the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Texas, serving as a pioneer circuit-riding minister until his death. McGown also founded the newspaper "The Texas Presbyterian" and helped establish Andrew Female College in Huntsville.
Why it matters
McGown's life links the fight for Texas independence to the frontier institutions—churches, presses, and schools—that gave the new republic a settled society.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Andrew Jackson McGown arrived in Texas in 1835, just as tension between Anglo-American colonists and the Mexican government was breaking into open war. Young men from the United States, many from Tennessee and elsewhere in the South, crossed into Texas to join the fight. Some came for land, some for adventure, and some from conviction.
The war ended at San Jacinto in April 1836, when Sam Houston's army defeated the forces of Mexican president Antonio López de Santa Anna and won Texas its independence. The new Republic then faced the harder job of building a society: churches, schools, newspapers, and the institutions of settled life.
McGown's life spans that whole arc, from revolution through republic and statehood to the years just after the Civil War. His career shows how the same generation that fought for Texas went on to shape its religious and educational life.
People & events
A native of Tennessee, McGown came to Texas in 1835 and joined the Texas Army. He fought at the Battle of San Jacinto, the short but decisive fight that secured Texas independence. For the rest of his life he could count himself among the veterans of that day.
After the war he turned to the ministry. He helped establish the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Texas, a denomination born on the Tennessee and Kentucky frontier that was well suited to a scattered rural population. As a circuit rider, McGown traveled from settlement to settlement, preaching wherever people gathered, and he kept at it until his death in 1870.
He also worked through the printed word and the classroom. He founded The Texas Presbyterian, a newspaper that connected the church's widely spread members, and helped establish Andrew Female College in Huntsville, a school for young women's education. A Royal Arch Mason, he also served as Grand Chaplain of Forest Lodge No. 19.
Its place in the American story
McGown's story shows a quieter side of the Texas Revolution. San Jacinto is remembered as a battle, but many of the men who fought there went on to build the institutions that made Texas a lasting society rather than just a hard-won territory.
Circuit-riding preachers were among the most important builders of the American frontier. From Tennessee to Texas, these traveling ministers carried religion, news, and a sense of community to people living far from any town. McGown brought that tradition, and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church itself, from his native Tennessee to Texas.
His support for Andrew Female College belongs to a broader nineteenth-century movement to educate women. Female colleges and academies opened across the country, especially in the South, and they gave young women schooling that had long been out of reach. These institutions helped lay the groundwork for women's wider role in American public life.
If you visit
Crockett, in the Piney Woods of East Texas, is one of the state's older towns, and it makes a pleasant stop on a drive through the forested country between Houston and Dallas. The marker invites you to think of the town as part of the world McGown traveled on horseback as he carried his ministry across early Texas.
Huntsville, where Andrew Female College stood, is within easy driving distance. It is also known for its ties to Sam Houston, whose army McGown served in at San Jacinto, so the two towns fit together well on one East Texas itinerary.
For a fuller picture of McGown's early life, consider a visit to the San Jacinto Battleground east of Houston. Standing where the revolution was decided, you can trace a single life from that battlefield to the pulpits, printing presses, and schools that followed.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Andrew Jackson McGown
Related events
- · Battle of San Jacinto
Themes & tags
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