Dr. George Washington Barnett
Gonzales, Gonzales County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Born in South Carolina December 12, 1793, killed by Indians October 8, 1848. Served in the army of Texas, 1835-36 signed the Texas declaration of independence, '36 member of the senate of the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh congresses of the republic.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Born in South Carolina in 1793, Dr. George Washington Barnett served in the army of Texas during the 1835–36 revolution and signed the Texas Declaration of Independence in 1836. He then represented his district through six congresses of the Republic of Texas as a senator. His life ended violently in 1848 when he was killed by Indians on the Texas frontier.
Why it matters
Founders like Barnett gave the short-lived Republic of Texas its political shape, and their frontier deaths underscore how contested the region remained even after independence.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Dr. George Washington Barnett lived through the entire, dramatic arc of Texas in the first half of the 19th century. Born in South Carolina in 1793, he belonged to the generation of Southerners who moved west as the young United States expanded, many of them eventually crossing into Mexican Texas in search of land and opportunity.
By the 1830s, tensions between those Anglo-American settlers and the Mexican government were boiling over. Gonzales, where this marker stands, holds a special place in that story. In October 1835 a clash here over a small cannon, remembered for its defiant Come and Take It flag, helped start the Texas Revolution.
The revolution ended with Texas independence in 1836, and for nearly a decade Texas was its own nation, the Republic of Texas, until it joined the United States in 1845. Throughout those years, the frontier remained contested ground. Settlers pushed onto lands that Native peoples still held and defended, and violence on both sides was part of daily life.
People & events
Barnett's story, as the marker tells it, is one of service at every stage. A doctor by profession, he served in the army of Texas during the fighting of 1835 and 1836. In a frontier society where trained physicians were rare, a doctor in the ranks was valuable, though the marker doesn't tell us exactly what duties he performed.
In 1836 he took his place among the men who signed the Texas Declaration of Independence. Signing it was a serious act. It declared a break with Mexico while the war's outcome was still uncertain, and the signers were putting their lives on the line.
After independence, Barnett turned to building the new nation. He served in the Senate of the Republic of Texas through six congresses, the second through the seventh. That is a long run of public service in a young government that was often short of money, debating its future and trying to secure recognition abroad. Then, in October 1848, a few years after Texas had become a state, Barnett was killed by Indians. His death is a stark reminder that independence and statehood did not end the conflict on the Texas frontier.
Its place in the American story
Barnett's life follows a path that runs straight through the larger American story of westward expansion. He was born just a few years after the Constitution was adopted, joined the movement of Americans into Texas, helped create an independent republic, and lived to see it join the United States. That annexation set off the war with Mexico and reshaped the map of North America.
Signers of the Texas Declaration are, in a sense, the Texas counterparts of the founders of the United States. Men like Barnett gave the Republic its laws and its institutions, shaping a political culture that carried over into the state of Texas.
His violent death also points to the other side of expansion. For the Native nations of Texas, the arrival of settlers and new governments meant the loss of homelands they fought to hold. Barnett's story holds both of these truths together: the building of a republic and the continuing, often deadly clash on its frontier.
If you visit
Gonzales is a wonderful town for anyone interested in the Texas Revolution. Its identity is bound up with the events of 1835, and you will find reminders of the Come and Take It story around town. This marker adds a personal thread to that history, the life of a man who went from the revolution's early days to the Republic's Senate.
As you stand here, think about the span of Barnett's life, from South Carolina in the early days of the United States to the Texas frontier of the 1840s. Read the dates on the marker aloud with children; they tell a whole story of a nation being born and a frontier still in conflict.
Gonzales makes a good anchor for a Texas Revolution road trip. From here, you can plan a route to other revolution sites across south-central Texas, including Washington-on-the-Brazos, where the Declaration Barnett signed was adopted. Following that trail lets you trace his path through one of the most important years in Texas history.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · George Washington Barnett
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Indian Fort, Site of
Gonzales, TX
An Indian raid on July 2, 1826, left one Gonzales settler dead and another wounded and sent the frightened colonists fleeing to Burnham's Station on the Colorado River or to the Lavaca. In 1827, Green DeWitt's colonists were ordered back to reestablish the settlement, and on this lot they built a fort for protection. It was a small but telling episode in the struggle to hold the Texas frontier.
Kerr's Creek
Gonzales, TX
In the 1820s, Mexico opened Texas to Anglo-American colonists through empresarios like Green DeWitt, who was granted land to plant a colony. James Kerr, a former Missouri state senator, was commissioned to lay out its capital and settled with six other men along this stream, which has carried his name ever since. A destructive Indian raid in 1826 forced the fledgling settlement to be abandoned.
Half Moon
Shiner, TX
Named for the crescent shape of its timber, Half Moon on Rocky Creek was a gathering place for Native peoples and travelers long before Spanish explorers noted it in 1689. Settlers arrived from the 1830s to trade and farm, and at its height in the mid-1880s the community boasted stores, a saloon, and a post office. When Henry B. Shiner donated land for a railroad in 1887, the rails bypassed Half Moon, and its people and commerce drained away into the new town of Shiner.
Cuero I Archeological District
Hochheim, TX
Stretching forty-five miles along the Guadalupe River, the Cuero I Archeological District was defined in the early 1970s to study and preserve sites threatened by a proposed reservoir. Excavations in 1972-73 uncovered 352 significant sites spanning some 9,000 years of human occupation — from the camps of prehistoric nomads to those of historic Tonkawas and Comanches. Later sites mark the arrival of Anglo-American settlers under Green DeWitt's colony in the 1820s and 1830s.