Colonel David Alexander Nunn
Crockett, Houston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(Oct. 1, 1836 - Aug. 13, 1911) Mayor of Crockett, 1859. In Civil War (1861-65) led Co. I, 4th Texas Cavalry. Member, Constitutional Convention of 1875. Recorded - 1973
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
David Alexander Nunn (1836–1911) was a fixture of Crockett's public life across a turbulent era, serving as mayor in 1859. During the Civil War he led Company I of the 4th Texas Cavalry, and afterward he helped shape the state's government as a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1875. His long career bridged frontier town-building, wartime service, and Reconstruction-era politics.
Why it matters
Nunn's life traces how a single local leader helped carry a Texas community through statehood, civil war, and the rebuilding that followed.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
David Alexander Nunn was born on October 1, 1836, the year Texas won its independence from Mexico. For most of his long life his home was Crockett, one of the oldest Anglo-American towns in Texas and the seat of Houston County in the piney woods of East Texas. The town was named for Davy Crockett, the frontiersman who died at the Alamo that same year.
Nunn's life spanned the Republic of Texas, statehood in 1845, secession and the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the start of the twentieth century. People of his generation saw Texas change from a young, lightly settled republic into a large state rebuilding after a devastating war.
The years just before the Civil War were tense ones in Texas politics, dominated by arguments over slavery, secession and the Union. Nunn stepped into public life during that period, and the events that followed shaped the rest of his career.
People & events
Nunn became mayor of Crockett in 1859, when he was only in his early twenties. Being trusted to lead his town so young suggests he was already well known in the community. Within two years, secession and war interrupted any quiet career in local government.
When the Civil War began in 1861, Nunn went into Confederate service and commanded Company I of the 4th Texas Cavalry. Companies were usually raised in a particular area, and the men in them were often neighbors, relatives and friends, so a captain was responsible for the lives of people he knew from home. The marker gives the unit and his command, and those facts carry the story. This account does not try to add details of specific battles that the marker doesn't mention.
After the war, Nunn again helped shape Texas government. He served in the Constitutional Convention of 1875, which wrote a new state constitution after the Reconstruction years. He died on August 13, 1911, having spent about seventy-five years moving between local, military and state public life.
Its place in the American story
The Constitutional Convention of 1875 is the part of Nunn's career with the longest reach. It produced the Texas Constitution of 1876, which, heavily amended, is still the state's governing document today. Many delegates reacted against the powerful Reconstruction-era state government. The document they wrote limited state power, restrained spending, and spelled out many details directly in the constitution rather than leaving them to lawmakers.
The decisions of that convention still affect Texans every day, from how the state is governed to why Texas voters are so often asked to approve constitutional amendments. Anyone who took part in writing it helped set rules that have lasted about 150 years.
Nunn's life also shows a broader pattern in Southern history. Many Southern men served in local office before the war, fought for the Confederacy, and then helped rebuild state government after Reconstruction. Those leaders shaped the South's political direction for generations. That is an important and complicated legacy, and it should be understood fully rather than simply celebrated.
If you visit
Crockett is a good town for history lovers. It is one of the oldest towns in Texas, so a walk around the courthouse square and older streets gives a feel for the community Nunn led as a young mayor before the Civil War. This marker is a small, focused stop, and it gains meaning when you pair it with a look at the town around it.
While you're there, think about how much Nunn saw. A man born in the year of Texas independence lived to see automobiles and the early twentieth century. The short inscription covers a remarkable stretch of change.
Crockett works well as part of an East Texas history drive through the piney woods, where several of the state's oldest towns and roads are close together. Leave time to explore beyond the marker. Much of what made Crockett historic is simply the town itself.
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
- · David Alexander Nunn
Related events
- · Texas Constitutional Convention of 1875
Themes & tags
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