Josiah Taylor
Cuero, DeWitt County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Born in Virginia. First came to Texas in 1812, as captain in the Gutierrez - Magee Expedition, an attempt to free Mexico from Spain; fought at La Bahia, Alazan, Rosales; wounded 7 times in the Battle of Medina. Returned to Texas with family, 1824; listed in Atascosita Census, 1826; settled here in Green De Witt Colony, 1829. Five sons fought in Battle of Salado Creek with Capt. Jack Hays' company of Texas Rangers, during Mexican invasion of 1842. Recorded - 1973
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Josiah Taylor's life traces the violent birth of Texas across three decades. He first rode into the province in 1812 with the Gutiérrez-Magee filibuster, an armed bid to pry Mexico from Spanish rule, and was wounded repeatedly at the disastrous Battle of Medina. Returning with his family in the 1820s, he took a headright in Green DeWitt's colony, and by 1842 five of his sons were riding with Jack Hays' Rangers against a Mexican invasion.
Why it matters
Taylor's story compresses the whole arc of Anglo settlement in Mexican Texas—from foreign adventuring to permanent colony to armed defense—into a single frontier family.
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Related people
- · Josiah Taylor
- · Jack Hays
Related events
- · Gutierrez-Magee Expedition
- · Battle of Medina
- · Battle of Salado Creek
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Taylor Family Cemetery
Cuero, TX
Also called Taylor-Bennett Cemetery, this DeWitt County burial ground began with Josiah Taylor, whose grave from 1830 is its oldest. Taylor first entered Texas in 1812 with the Gutiérrez-Magee Expedition, fighting at La Bahía and in the battles of Rosillo and Alazán Creek, then settled with his family as part of the DeWitt Colony in 1829. His descendants included Texas Rangers, veterans of the Texas Revolution, and participants in the Runaway Scrape, and among those buried here are men killed in the notorious Sutton-Taylor Feud.
De Witt County
Cuero, TX
This ground lay within Green De Witt's 1825 empresario grant and became DeWitt County in 1846, its seat shifting from Cameron to Clinton and finally to Cuero in 1876. Settled first by Anglo-Americans and, by 1860, half by German immigrants, the county sent its men into nearly every fight of the Texas Revolution — the Alamo, Goliad, Gonzales, and San Jacinto among them. The marker rolls out a long honor list of the pioneers and soldiers who founded and defended it.
Site of Cameron, First County Seat of DeWitt County
Cuero, TX
Chosen in 1846 as DeWitt County's first seat of justice, the town of Cameron honored Captain Ewen Cameron, a prisoner of the ill-fated Mier Expedition who was executed on Santa Anna's order. Though platted on a hundred donated acres, it never grew beyond a log courthouse and clerk's office, and after four elections and four court fights it lost the county seat to Clinton in 1850.
Site of the Home of Robert Justus Kleberg
Meyersville, TX
Robert Justus Kleberg, born in Germany in 1803, came to Texas in 1834 and fought at the Battle of San Jacinto in Captain Moseley Baker's company during the Texas Revolution. He went on to serve in the state legislature as a senator and lived in the Meyersville area until his death at Yorktown, Texas, in 1888. A Texas county was later named in his honor.