Peyton Bland
Orange, Orange County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Born in 1815 in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, Peyton Bland became a vital figure in Orange County. He migrated to Texas as a young man and at Orange in 1835 enrolled to serve I the Texas Revolution. Bland participated in the Grass Fight and the Battle of San Antonio before being discharged. Later reenlisting, he performed guard duty during the Battle of San Jacinto, among other responsibilities. Bland married Susan (Susannah) Harmon in Beaumont in 1838. The couple moved and settled on an Orange County farm, raising 13 children. Bland built his home on Cow Bayou, north of here, where in addition to farming he ran a local store. Bland also took part in the thriving Texas cattle industry, driving cattle to market in New Orleans. A local resident, later describing Bland, remembered "When he entered the room, he filled the door. He was huge, with pistols on his hips – he scared us kids to death." Bland once again joined the military when he enrolled in the Orange County Coast Guard in 1862, during the Civil War. This company was attached to the Second Regiment, First Brigade of Texas militia. After the war, he served briefly as an Orange County commissioner. In 1873, Bland died of pneumonia, and his family buried him in a now unknown site near the San Bernard River in Wharton County. Today, Peyton Bland is remembered not only as an important contributor to Orange County and Texas, but also as a pioneer who worked in farming, business and cattle in times of peace and as a military man when called on during times of war. (2007)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Born in Louisiana in 1815, Peyton Bland enrolled at Orange in 1835 to fight in the Texas Revolution, taking part in the Grass Fight and the siege of San Antonio before later standing guard duty during the San Jacinto campaign. He settled on a farm along Cow Bayou, raised thirteen children, ran a store, and drove cattle to market in New Orleans, cutting a physically imposing figure remembered for the pistols on his hips. When the Civil War came he enlisted again, in the Orange County Coast Guard, and afterward briefly served as a county commissioner.
Why it matters
Bland embodies the citizen-soldier of frontier Texas — a farmer, merchant, and drover who took up arms whenever the young republic and state called.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Peyton Bland
- · Susan Harmon Bland
Related events
- · Texas Revolution
- · Grass Fight
- · Battle of San Jacinto
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Niles F. Smith
Sabine Pass, TX
A New Yorker who came to Texas with Robertson's colony in 1834, Niles F. Smith fought in the Texas Revolution and then helped build the young Republic, serving as its first banking commissioner along with posts as customs collector and land agent. Settling at Sabine Pass in 1841, he erected Jefferson County's first steam sawmill and its first church, and backed annexation to the United States in 1845. He rests here beside his wife Abigail and their two sons.
Fawil Sam Herrin Cemetery
Newton, TX
Sam and Mary Herrin homesteaded 106 acres in the Fawil community of the East Texas piney woods, raising eleven children to adulthood and setting aside an acre for a family burial ground. The earliest graves, from 1911 and 1912, belong to a granddaughter and a daughter, and most of the dozens interred here descend from that pioneer couple. The surrounding community once supported three churches, a school, a plywood mill, and a store.
Edward Thomas Branch
Liberty, TX
A Virginia native, Edward Thomas Branch came to Texas in 1835 and settled in Liberty, fighting as a first sergeant at the Battle of San Jacinto the following spring. He went on to a long public career in the young Republic of Texas—congressman, district judge, postmaster—and later served as speaker of the House in the first state legislature after annexation. He married Anne Cleveland Wharton, daughter of statesman William H. Wharton, and helped charter the Liberty Masonic Lodge.
James B. Woods
Liberty, TX
Kentucky-born James B. Woods arrived in Mexican Texas in 1830 and became a brilliant lawyer and orator in the Liberty District, elected alcalde (mayor) in 1834. As one of five delegates from Liberty, he signed the Texas Declaration of Independence at Washington-on-the-Brazos in March 1836 and served that year in the Texas Army. His life ended in tragedy after he killed a man in an election quarrel in 1851, dying soon after amid remorse.