HistoricSiteMarkers
Early Republic

Dr. Branch Tanner Archer

Clute, Brazoria County, Texas

Marker Inscription

President of the Consultation, 1835. Texas commissioner to the United States in 1835-1836. Archer County was named in his honor. Born in Virginia, 1790; died September 22, 1856.

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Branch Tanner Archer was among the Virginia-born physicians and firebrands who threw their lot in with Texas during its break from Mexico. In 1835 he presided over the Consultation, the provisional assembly that set the colonists on the road to revolution, then sailed east as one of three commissioners sent to win money, arms, and sympathy from the United States. A frontier county still carries his name, a common way early Texas honored the men who argued its independence into being.

Why it matters

Archer represents the diplomatic and political front of the Texas Revolution โ€” the men who fought for the young republic with petitions and persuasion rather than rifles, helping fold Texas into the American story.

Own a business near here? Add it to the map.

Related people

  • ยท Branch Tanner Archer

Related events

  • ยท Consultation of 1835
  • ยท Texas Revolution

Themes & tags

Westward ExpansionMilitary & WartimeFrontier HistoryMemorial

Nearby & related markers

Major Reuben R. Brown

Jones Creek, TX

Reuben R. Brown joined the Matamoros Expedition in January 1836 during the Texas War for Independence and rode in the detachment that captured horses from the Mexican general Urrea's forces. Taken prisoner in a counterattack, he endured eleven months of captivity in Mexico before escaping, and in old age lived with his daughter โ€” who had married into the family of Moses Austin, whose vision first opened Texas to colonization.

Henry William Munson

Jones Creek, TX

Henry William Munson's life spanned the violent birth of Anglo Texas. He fought at the 1813 Battle of Medina near San Antonio, returned east, then came back as one of Austin's colonists in 1824. He took up arms for Mexico to put down the 1827 Fredonian Rebellion, but turned against Santa Anna's agents at the 1832 Battle of Velasco. He and his wife Ann named one son Mordello, after the Mexican officer who had saved Munson's life at Medina.