James Hodges, Sr.

🏛️The era

When James Hodges arrived in Gonzales in the spring of 1835, Texas was still part of Mexico. Gonzales was the main settlement of Green DeWitt's colony, one of the empresario grants through which Mexico had invited American settlers into its northern frontier. The land was rich, the rivers were good, and families kept arriving from the United States hoping for a fresh start on cheap, fertile ground.

He also arrived just as relations between the colonists and the Mexican government were breaking down. The central government in Mexico City was tightening its control, and many settlers feared they would lose rights and local self-rule. Towns formed committees of public safety, part watchdog and part shadow government, to organize their response.

Gonzales soon found itself at the center of events. In early October 1835 its settlers refused a Mexican demand to give up a small cannon, and the skirmish that followed is remembered as the first shot of the Texas Revolution. The famous "Come and Take It" flag came from that standoff. Over the next months the struggle grew into a full war for independence.

👥People & events

Hodges wasted no time putting down roots. Soon after he arrived, he bought four leagues of land, more than seventeen thousand acres, where the San Marcos River meets the Guadalupe. He paid three thousand dollars in silver. Hard coin was scarce on the frontier, so a payment like that marked him as a man of real means and serious intentions.

That September, just months after he settled, his neighbors trusted him with a heavy responsibility. In an election run by the Gonzales Committee of Public Safety, he was chosen as one of six delegates to the Consultation. It met at San Felipe de Austin in November 1835, set up a provisional government for Texas and organized an army under Sam Houston. A newcomer was suddenly helping to decide the future of a would-be nation.

Back home, Hodges supplied the Texas army in 1836. Then came the hardest months. After the Alamo fell that spring, Houston's army retreated east, and Gonzales itself was burned to keep it from the advancing Mexican forces. Settlers across the region fled in a desperate rush known as the Runaway Scrape. Hodges and his family were among them, leaving their new land behind with no way to know whether they would ever return.

They did return. Hodges went back to Gonzales County and, in 1838, served on its Board of Land Commissioners, helping the young Republic sort out who owned what. Married twice and the father of eight, he lived out his life on his land by the two rivers. He died on Christmas Eve, 1846, and was buried on the family farm, in what became the Hodges Family Cemetery.

🇺🇸Its place in the American story

The Texas Revolution is often told through a handful of famous names, but it was also the work of men like James Hodges. They were ordinary settlers who left their farms to serve as delegates, suppliers and local officials. The Consultation of 1835 was a gathering of people like him, chosen by their neighbors, who tried to build a government while a war was starting around them.

His life also follows Texas through three governments in barely a decade. He arrived in Mexican Texas, helped found the Republic of Texas, and died just after Texas joined the United States in 1845. That change of flags reshaped the map of North America and fed straight into the national arguments over expansion that dominated the 1840s.

The story is also a reminder that independence came at a real cost to the families who fought for it. The Runaway Scrape uprooted thousands of people. The fact that families like the Hodges came back, rebuilt and stayed is part of how a revolution became a settled society.

🧭If you visit

Gonzales calls itself the place where the Texas Revolution began, and the town wears that history proudly. You will see the "Come and Take It" motto all over the place. The town is an easy and rewarding stop for anyone tracing the story of Texas independence.

As you stand at this marker, think about the land it describes. The San Marcos and Guadalupe Rivers come together near here, and that meeting of waters is what drew Hodges to spend his silver. The marker notes that his family cemetery lies about a mile to the southeast. Like many old family burial grounds, it may be on or near private land, so respect any property lines.

Gonzales pairs well with other stops on a Texas Revolution road trip. San Antonio and the Alamo lie to the west, and the old colonial heartland lies east toward San Felipe. Taken together, they let you follow the path of 1835 and 1836 from the first shot to the struggle for survival.