Duncan's Ferry (on San Marcos River)

🏛️The era

In the mid-1830s, Gonzales was one of the westernmost Anglo-American settlements in Mexican Texas. It sat on the edge of the frontier near where the San Marcos River meets the Guadalupe. It was a small, exposed community. When relations between Texas settlers and the Mexican government broke down, Gonzales became the place where the fighting started.

In October 1835, Mexican troops tried to take back a small cannon that had been lent to the town for defense. The settlers refused, famously challenging the soldiers to "come and take it." That skirmish is widely remembered as the opening shot of the Texas Revolution. A few months later, when the Alamo in San Antonio came under siege, men from Gonzales rode to reinforce it, and many of them died in its fall.

In those days, river crossings were lifelines. Before bridges, a ferry was often the only practical way to move people, wagons, livestock, and armies across a river. Whoever ran a ferry was not just a businessman. His crossing was a vital link in the region's communications, and in wartime, a strategic asset.

👥People & events

Benjamin Duncan, a Scotsman born in 1793, started a ferry on the San Marcos River around 1834. It was one of the crossings travelers depended on near Gonzales. He had no way of knowing that within two years his ferry would be caught up in one of the most dramatic moments in Texas history.

In March 1836 the Alamo fell. One of the few survivors was Susanna Dickinson, whose husband, Almaron Dickinson, had died defending it. She was spared along with her infant daughter and sent east carrying word of the defeat. According to tradition, her first stop was Duncan's home, before she brought the terrible news to the people of Gonzales. Many families in that town were about to learn that their husbands, sons, and brothers were dead.

General Sam Houston was camped at Gonzales with the young Texas army. He understood that his small force could not stand against the advancing Mexican army. He ordered a retreat, and on the night of March 13, 1836, he had the town and the ferry burned so they would not fall into enemy hands. Settlers fled east in what became known as the Runaway Scrape, leaving behind their homes and belongings.

The story didn't end in ashes. Houston's retreat ended in victory at San Jacinto in April 1836, and Texas won its independence. Benjamin Duncan came back and rebuilt his ferry, and he kept it running until 1866, the year he died. It served travelers for three decades after the night it was burned.

🇺🇸Its place in the American story

The events connected to this crossing are among the most famous in American frontier history. The fall of the Alamo became a national symbol of sacrifice, and "Remember the Alamo" became one of the best-known rallying cries in American history. Susanna Dickinson's role as a messenger made her one of the key eyewitness figures of the revolution.

Houston's decision to retreat and burn Gonzales was controversial in its day. It was also a turning point. By falling back instead of throwing away his army, he kept a fighting force alive long enough to win at San Jacinto. That victory created the Republic of Texas. Nine years later, Texas's annexation to the United States helped set off the U.S.–Mexican War and the westward expansion of the nation.

The ferry's story also shows what that history cost ordinary people. Behind the famous names are families like those of Gonzales, who lost their men at the Alamo and then lost their homes to the flames. Settlers like Duncan simply rebuilt and went back to work once the fighting was over.

🧭If you visit

Stand near the San Marcos River and imagine the scene here in March 1836. There's a grieving widow carrying news of disaster. An army is preparing to march away. A town and its ferry are burning through the night. It's one of the most dramatic chapters of the Texas Revolution, and it happened in this quiet river country.

Gonzales proudly embraces its role as the town where the Texas Revolution began, and it makes a natural stop on a road trip through revolutionary Texas. You can link it with San Antonio and the Alamo to the west and follow the path of the retreat east toward San Jacinto. Taken together, these places let you trace the whole arc of the revolution on the ground.

When you visit the marker, take a moment to think about the ferry itself: a simple crossing that mattered enormously. In an age before bridges, places like Duncan's Ferry were where news traveled, where armies crossed, and where frontier history often turned.