HistoricSiteMarkers
Early RepublicReconstruction & Gilded Age

Homesite of Fannie Baker Darden

Columbus, Colorado County, Texas

Marker Inscription

(1829-1890) Known as "Poet Laureate of Columbus." Daughter of Texas War for Independence hero, Gen. Mosely Baker, and his wife Eliza; married attorney W. J. Darden, Jan 26, 1847; had two sons. Moved here, 1852. Taught art at Colorado College. Wrote for Columbus, Galveston, Houston, New Orleans newspaper.

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Fannie Baker Darden, born in 1829, was the daughter of Texas Revolution general Mosely Baker and became known as the 'Poet Laureate of Columbus.' She married a local attorney, raised two sons, taught art at Colorado College, and wrote for newspapers from Columbus and Galveston to Houston and New Orleans.

Why it matters

Her life shows a nineteenth-century Texas woman claiming a public voice in literature, journalism, and the arts.

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

Related people

  • ยท Fannie Baker Darden
  • ยท Mosely Baker
  • ยท W. J. Darden

Themes & tags

Nearby & related markers

Caledonia Lodge No. 68, A. F. & A. M.

Columbus, TX

Chartered in early 1851, Caledonia Lodge did what many frontier Masonic lodges did on the Texas frontier โ€” it became the town's first schoolhouse builder. Within weeks the Masons founded the Columbus Female Seminary, the first school in Columbus, raising a two-story building with classrooms below and their lodge hall above. In 1857 they went further and founded Colorado College, the town's first public school.

Methodism in Eagle Lake

Eagle Lake, TX

In a small Colorado County town, Methodism took root through a schoolhouse: by 1864 Emma Tracy Rhine had opened the community's first private school, and in 1872 the circuit rider Orceneth Fisher organized a Methodist congregation there. For decades the faithful shared a union church with Baptists, Episcopalians and others until each could build its own sanctuary, and in 1939 a grieving family gave land for the Colly Memorial church in memory of a daughter lost too young.

Home of William Christian Papenberg

Columbus, TX

William Christian Papenberg came to Texas from Illinois in 1899 as a schoolteacher and settled in Columbus in 1904, soon trading the classroom for public office. He served as district clerk of Colorado County for a remarkable thirty-eight years. The house he and his wife Emma built in 1914 has stayed in the family and was named a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1973.