HistoricSiteMarkers
Early Republic

Col. Jose Francisco Ruiz

San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Officer in the Mexican Army, 1831. Signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence 1836. Senator of the first Congress of the Republic 1836-37. Born in San Antonio January 29, 1783. Died January 20, 1840. Erected by the State of Texas 1936

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Born in San Antonio in 1783, José Francisco Ruiz served as an officer in the Mexican army before casting his lot with the Texas cause, becoming one of the few native Tejanos to sign the 1836 Texas Declaration of Independence. He went on to represent his people as a senator in the first Congress of the Republic of Texas. He died in 1840, honored in the city of his birth.

Why it matters

Ruiz stands among the handful of Texas-born Tejano founders, a reminder that the Republic's independence was won by Mexican Texans as well as Anglo settlers.

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Related people

  • · Jose Francisco Ruiz

Related events

  • · Texas Declaration of Independence

Themes & tags

Military & WartimeWestward ExpansionMemorial

Nearby & related markers

The Grass Fight

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In the autumn of 1835, as the Texas Revolution opened, Texan volunteers—Anglo and Tejano alike—besieged the Centralist garrison at San Antonio de Bexar. On November 26, scout Erastus "Deaf" Smith spotted an approaching Mexican pack train rumored to carry silver payroll, and a sharp skirmish erupted near the creek junctions west of town. When the captured animals were unloaded, the packs held not treasure but fodder grass, giving the clash its wry name and setting the stage for the storming of Bexar weeks later.

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Benjamin Rush Milam

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Kentucky-born Benjamin Rush Milam packed a lifetime of frontier daring into his years: a soldier in the War of 1812, a trader among the Comanches, a colonizer, and the first to navigate the upper Red River. When the Texas Revolution erupted, he helped take Goliad and then rallied volunteers with the cry to storm San Antonio, planning the attack that would capture the town. He was killed leading that assault on December 7, 1835. This monument was raised by the State of Texas in 1936 for the independence centennial.

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John W. Smith

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Military & WartimeWestward Expansion