Major Robert S. Neighbors
Newcastle, Young County, Texas
Marker Inscription
As Indian agent, forceful peacemaker and humanist, Maj. Neighbors had more influence over Texas' Indians than any other man of his era; came to Texas in 1836. He served as quartermaster in Texas army, 1839-41. While on Texas Ranger duty in San Antonio, 1842, he was taken as a prisoner of war to Mexico by Gen. Adrian Woll and spent 18 months in Perote Prison. Began his service to the Indians in 1845. As agent for Lipan-Apache and Tonkawa tribes, he used field system of control, visiting Indian homes, learning a red man's way of life, improving living condition, helping them to trade. He ably defended their rights, was counselor and friend, and sought new homes for them, never faltering in commitment to their safety. As a Texas commissioner in 1850 he organized El Paso County; he was also a state representative, 1851-1852, and a presidential elector in 1852. Major Neighbors later became the supervising agent for all of the Indians in Texas. Frontier civilians and soldiers failed to support his Indian policies. Many became hostile. On Sept. 14, 1859, he was murdered near here by a white man as he was returning after safely removing all reservation Indians from Texas. He was buried in Belknap Cemetery (1/2 mile E. of Town).
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Robert S. Neighbors came to Texas in 1836 and, after service as an army quartermaster and Texas Ranger — including 18 months in a Mexican prison — devoted himself to serving the state's Native peoples. As agent for the Lipan-Apache, Tonkawa, and eventually all Texas tribes, he lived among them, defended their rights, and sought them safe homes, until frontier hostility to his policies led to his murder in 1859 as he returned from removing reservation Indians from Texas.
Why it matters
Neighbors stands out as a rare Indian agent who advocated for Native welfare on a violent frontier, and his killing marks the tragic collapse of that experiment in coexistence.
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Related people
- · Robert S. Neighbors
- · Adrian Woll
Related events
- · Removal of Texas reservation Indians
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Old Fort Belknap Powder Magazine
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Virginia-born Robert Simpson Neighbors served in the Army of the Republic of Texas in 1836 and was captured during the Mexican general Adrian Woll's 1842 raid before becoming a United States Indian agent in 1845. In that role he worked among the Comanche and other Texas tribes during a turbulent era of frontier contact, and he was killed in 1859. The State of Texas erected this marker to him in 1936, the centennial of Texas independence.
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