Dr. Benjamin Briggs Goodrich
Anderson, Grimes County, Texas
Marker Inscription
[front] Born in Brunswick Co, Va. February 24, 1799, Died at Anderson, Texas, November 16, 1860. His wife Serena Crothers Born in Barren County, Ky. May 11, 1807, Died April 27, 1884. Erected by the State of Texas [back] Dr. Goodrich was a member of the Consultation at San Felipe in 1835 and a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence at Washington March 2, 1836.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Born in Virginia in 1799, Dr. Benjamin Briggs Goodrich took part in the 1835 Consultation at San Felipe and, on March 2, 1836, signed the Texas Declaration of Independence at Washington-on-the-Brazos. He lived out his life at Anderson, Texas, where he and his wife Serena are memorialized. The state erected the marker over his grave.
Why it matters
Goodrich stands among the founders who declared Texas independence, tying this quiet Grimes County grave to the birth of the Republic.
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Related people
- · Benjamin Briggs Goodrich
Related events
- · Texas Declaration of Independence
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Grimes County
Anderson, TX
The ground here carries layers of Texas history: a road used in 1690 by Spanish explorer Alonso de León, the 1821 arrival of settler Andrew Millican, and Henry Fanthorp's inn and post office of the 1830s. The town took its name from Kenneth Anderson, the Republic of Texas's last vice-president, who died at Fanthorp's inn in 1845. Organized in 1846 and named for Declaration signer Jesse Grimes, the county even ran a gun factory and supplied troops during the Civil War.
Grimes County Courthouse
Anderson, TX
The third courthouse to stand on this Anderson square, this hand-molded brick Victorian building rose in 1891 on land granted by Mexico in 1824 and donated in 1850 by Henry Fanthorp, the county's first permanent settler. Its vault, salvaged from earlier buildings, twice survived fire. Local lore even records a Clyde Barrow gang member, tried here in the 1930s, cursing that he'd next see the court in the infernal regions.
In Memory of_Colonel Benjamin Fort Smith_and all other pioneers
Anderson, TX
Erected by the State of Texas in 1936, this monument honors the pioneers of the Grimes County vicinity who shaped the Republic of Texas. Its two faces name veterans of the War of 1812 and the Black Hawk War, delegates to the conventions that pressed for independence, signers of the Texas Declaration, martyrs of the Alamo, and heroes of San Jacinto. Among them are figures like Jesse Grimes and a woman who sewed a flag for the Texas army.
Michael Moore Kennard
Anderson, TX
Born in Tennessee, Michael Moore Kennard brought his family to Texas in 1830 as part of Robertson's Colony, likely pausing along the way to raise a crop. He received a large land grant in what is now Grimes County and earned still more land for his service in the Texas Revolution. His trading firm, Fanthorp, Womack & Kennard, was the county's first mercantile business.