Charles C. Stibbens
Saint Paul, Collin County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(May 14, 1810-March 31, 1879) A native of Maryland, Charles C. Stibbens came to Texas about 1835. He served in the Army during the Texas Revolution, participating in the Battle of San Jacinto. He settled in Anderson county soon after the war and worked as a farmer and shoemaker. Following the death of his first wife, Julie Ann Frost Slaughter, he was married in 1849 to Elizabeth Creekman. They eventually were the parents of eleven children. Charles and Elizabeth Stibbens moved to Saint Paul in 1870. He is the only veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto known to be buried in Collin county. (1992) Incise on base: Brenda Burns Kellow and James C. Evans, Jr.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
A Maryland native, Charles C. Stibbens came to Texas around 1835 and fought in the decisive Battle of San Jacinto during the Texas Revolution. He settled afterward as a farmer and shoemaker, raised eleven children, and moved to Saint Paul in 1870. He is the only known San Jacinto veteran buried in Collin County.
Why it matters
Stibbens is a tangible local link to the battle that won Texas independence, marking where one of its veterans lived out his ordinary later life.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
When Charles C. Stibbens arrived in Texas around 1835, the place was still part of Mexico, and it was on the edge of an explosion. Thousands of settlers from the United States had poured into Mexican Texas over the previous decade, drawn by cheap land. Tensions between those newcomers and the government in Mexico City over taxes, slavery, immigration and centralized power were close to open war.
The fighting broke out late in 1835 and moved fast. By the spring of 1836 the Alamo had fallen, Texas had declared its independence, and Sam Houston's small army was retreating east while Santa Anna's forces pursued it. Everything came down to one afternoon on the banks of the San Jacinto River.
Afterward the new Republic of Texas, and later the State of Texas, spent decades filling in its vast interior. Counties were carved out of the prairie and woodland, and veterans of the Revolution scattered across them to farm. Stibbens's life follows that pattern: a soldier in the founding fight, then a farmer and craftsman in East Texas, and finally a settler in the growing farm country of North Texas after the Civil War.
People & events
Charles Stibbens was born in Maryland in 1810 and was in his mid-twenties when he came to Texas, just in time for the revolution. He joined the army and was in the ranks at San Jacinto, where Houston's men surprised Santa Anna's camp. The fight itself was famously short, and it won Texas its independence.
What makes this marker touching is what came after. Stibbens did not become a politician or a legend. He settled in Anderson County, East Texas, and made his living two ways, farming and shoemaking. In frontier communities a man who could make and mend shoes was useful to all his neighbors. After his first wife, Julie Ann Frost Slaughter, died, he married Elizabeth Creekman in 1849. Together they raised a family that grew to eleven children.
In 1870, when Charles was about sixty, he and Elizabeth moved their household to Saint Paul in Collin County. He died there in 1879. The marker records that he is the only known San Jacinto veteran buried in Collin County, which makes this quiet spot the county's single direct link to the battle that created Texas. The names cut into the base, Brenda Burns Kellow and James C. Evans, Jr., point to the people who helped bring the marker about in 1992. They are a reminder that local memory is kept alive by people who care enough to do it.
Its place in the American story
San Jacinto was one of the most consequential battles fought in North America in the nineteenth century. It made Texas an independent republic, and that republic joined the United States in 1845. Annexation helped bring on the war with Mexico, and the territory the U.S. gained from that war reshaped the nation's map and its bitter debates over slavery's expansion.
Battles like this are usually remembered through generals. Stibbens's story is a reminder that they were won by ordinary young men, many of them recent arrivals. Afterward they went back to plowing fields, raising children and, in his case, making shoes. The citizen-soldier who returns to private life is one of the oldest ideals in American history, and his life is a plain example of it.
His movements also trace how Texas was settled. He came from the Upper South to the Mexican frontier, then went to East Texas and finally to the prairies of North Texas. Many families made similar journeys, and together those journeys built the state.
If you visit
This is a place for reflection, not spectacle. Saint Paul is a small community in Collin County, and the marker honors a man whose grave is the county's only known tie to San Jacinto. Take a moment to imagine the long road from a Maryland boyhood to a Texas battlefield, and then to a farm on the North Texas blackland prairie.
If you're traveling with kids, this marker is a good way to show that history happened to real families. Eleven children, two marriages and a trade at the cobbler's bench all followed one famous afternoon in 1836. Ask them what they think a soldier did with the rest of his life after a battle that famous.
To round out the story, you can pair this stop with a visit to the San Jacinto Battleground near Houston, where the battle took place and a towering monument stands today. Seeing the field where Stibbens fought, and then the quiet place where he rests, makes the story whole. As always, be respectful of the surroundings and any private property nearby.
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
- · Charles C. Stibbens
Related events
- · Battle of San Jacinto
Themes & tags
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