Captain A.C. Jones
Beeville, Bee County, Texas
Marker Inscription
One of builders of Southwest. Born in Nacogdoches County, son of very early settlers. Became a cattleman; served as sheriff of Goliad County in 1858-1860. In Civil War cavalry of Col. John S. "Rip" Ford for 4 years. Fought at Palmito Hill, war's last battle, 34 days after the surrender of Gen. Robt E. Lee. In 1886, raised $75,000 to build SA and AP railroad from San Antonio to Beeville. Aided in getting GH and SA to extend line form Victoria here in 1890. Was county treasurer, banker and the president and general manager of Beeville Oil Mill. (1965)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Born in Nacogdoches County to early Texas settlers, A. C. Jones became a cattleman and county sheriff before serving four years in Colonel John S. "Rip" Ford's Confederate cavalry, fighting at Palmito Hill—the last land battle of the Civil War, waged weeks after Lee's surrender. In peacetime he helped raise the capital to bring railroads to Beeville and led the town's banking and oil-mill enterprises.
Why it matters
Jones embodies the frontier entrepreneur whose cattle, rail, and banking ventures transformed raw South Texas country into connected, commercial communities.
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Related people
- · A. C. Jones
- · John S. "Rip" Ford
Related events
- · Battle of Palmito Hill
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Helena
Helena, TX
Founded on the San Antonio River in 1852 and named for a founder's wife, Helena sat astride the Chihuahua Trail that carried wagon freight, gold bullion, and daily four-horse stages between the Gulf coast, San Antonio, and northern Mexico. It became county seat in 1854 and, during the Civil War, ran its own Confederate post office and funneled cotton toward Mexican ports. When the railroad bypassed it in 1886 the town withered, and the county seat moved away in 1894.
Early Trails in Bee County
Beeville, TX
The roads of Bee County were centuries in the making: Native, wild-cattle, and mustang trails became highways for Spanish expeditions pressing north from Mexico, and later guided pioneers who founded towns at their crossings — Beeville itself sits where two old roads met. During the Civil War the vital "cotton road," called the lifeline of the Confederacy, crossed the county, and afterward great cattle trails funneled Longhorns north toward the Chisholm and Dodge City routes.
The Railroad in Bee County
Beeville, TX
On June 14, 1886, the first San Antonio and Aransas Pass train steamed into Beeville to a cheering crowd — the payoff of a campaign by rail promoter Uriah Lott, cattleman Captain A.C. Jones, and rancher Frank Skidmore, who donated land and money to bend the line through Bee County. When a second line arrived in 1889, Beeville became a rail center shipping cattle and cotton far and wide, with passenger service peaking around 1918 at eighteen trains a day on one line. Highways eventually undid it all: passenger service ended in 1952, the depot fell in 1958, and the last train left the county in 1994.
Medio Creek
Beeville, TX
Spaniards named this creek 'Medio'—middle—around 1800 for its position midway between the San Antonio and Nueces Rivers, and explorers, padres, soldiers, and settlers crossed it on three ox-cart roads running from Mexico to Mission La Bahía at Goliad. The freight route sparked the 1857 Cart War between Texan and Mexican teamsters, and Mexican drivers' mesquite-bean feed helped seed the brush that lines the banks today. A downstream community rose and fell here—the town of Candlish, founded in 1909, became a ghost town—while nearby fossil beds later yielded a new species of mastodon.