HistoricSiteMarkers
Early Republic

Francis Menefee White

Edna, Jackson County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Participated in the capture of Bexar, 1835. Born in Tennessee August 11, 1811, died March 22, 1897. His wife Rosanna K. M. White, born in Louisiana died in 1845.

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Francis Menefee White, born in Tennessee in 1811, took part in the 1835 capture of Bexar — the siege that drove Mexican forces from San Antonio in the opening months of the Texas Revolution. His grave marker, which also remembers his wife Rosanna, ties an ordinary volunteer to one of the war's first decisive victories. He lived on until 1897, long enough to see the frontier republic he fought for become part of the United States.

Why it matters

It honors the rank-and-file volunteers whose service in the Texas Revolution turned a colonists' protest into an armed struggle for independence.

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Related people

  • · Francis Menefee White
  • · Rosanna K. M. White

Related events

  • · Capture of Bexar (Siege of Béxar), 1835

Themes & tags

Nearby & related markers

Site of Camp Independence

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In the anxious months after San Jacinto, part of the fledgling Republic of Texas army camped here from December 1836 until President Sam Houston furloughed the restless troops in May 1837. Commanded first by Felix Huston and then by Albert Sidney Johnston, the encampment reflected the young republic's uneasy standoff with Mexico. Its darkest moment came when Captain Henry Teal was assassinated in his tent one night in May 1837, a killing that still shadows the site's memory.

John Sutherland Menefee

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John Sutherland Menefee, born in Tennessee in 1813, fought at the Battle of San Jacinto that won Texas its independence, then served in the Congress of the young Republic of Texas from 1837 to 1840. He lived out his years in the new state he had helped create, dying in 1884. The State of Texas honored him with this marker in 1937, the centennial era of Texas independence.

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