Moses Johnson, M.D.
Port Lavaca, Calhoun County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(1808-1853) Born in Virginia, Dr. Moses Johnson settled in Port Lavaca about 1837. After moving to Austin in 1840 to practice medicine, he was elected city alderman and then mayor. An active Mason, he served as Grand Marshal of the Grand Lodge of Texas, A.F. & A.M. in 1844. When Anson Jones was elected president of the Republic in 1844, he named his friend Johnson treasurer. In 1845 Johnson's Austin home and the treasury records were destroyed by fire. He moved his family back to Port Lavaca the next year. He died in a yellow fever epidemic there on Oct. 2, 1853 and is buried 1/4 mile west of this site. (1975)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Virginia-born Dr. Moses Johnson arrived on the young Texas coast around 1837, then moved to Austin to practice medicine and plunged into public life, winning election as alderman and mayor. A prominent Mason, he was close enough to President Anson Jones of the Republic of Texas to be named its treasurer in 1844, only to see his home and the treasury records burn the next year. He returned to Port Lavaca and died in the yellow fever epidemic of 1853.
Why it matters
His life traces the fragile institution-building of the Republic of Texas era, when a single frontier physician might also serve as mayor and hold the young nation's treasury.
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Related people
- · Moses Johnson
- · Anson Jones
Related events
- · Yellow fever epidemic of 1853
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Calhoun County
Port Lavaca, TX
Calhoun County was carved from Victoria, Jackson, and Matagorda counties and organized in 1846, the year Texas joined the Union, with the coastal town of Port Lavaca as its seat. It was named for John C. Calhoun, the South Carolina statesman who served in Congress and the Cabinet and as vice president of the United States. The marker records the county's creation at the moment the young state was organizing its government along the Gulf coast.
Moses Johnson, M.D.
Port Lavaca, TX
Born in Virginia and educated in New Hampshire, Dr. Moses Johnson moved from Illinois to Port Lavaca around 1837 and then to Austin in 1840. A physician and active Mason, he served as mayor of Austin and as treasurer of the Republic of Texas under his friend President Anson Jones. He died of yellow fever and was buried on his ranch alongside his wife Olivia.
Kamey Community
Port Lavaca, TX
John William McKamey, born in Arkansas in 1878, graduated from Baylor University in 1899 and returned to Texas to help run his family's cotton farm. With relatives and a partner he acquired more than 8,000 acres that became the Kamey Community, moving there in 1912 to raise cattle, cotton, and grain sorghum with his wife Maude. A rail depot, a one-teacher school, a post office, and a long-lived general store grew up around the family, whose descendants still work the land.
Clark Cemetery
Port Lavaca, TX
This burial ground served the Clark family of the vanished Chocolate community, named for nearby Chocolate Creek where Sylvanus Hatch and his brother Joseph settled in 1846. Residents raised cattle and horses, farmed, and worshipped at St. Paul's-on-the-Prairie, whose building also housed the school. In the mid-1850s John Clark arrived and built stock pens known as Clark's Station along the Indianola Railroad, letting area farmers ship crops and cattle to market; he deeded this cemetery in 1899.