Stephen Scallorn
Smithville, Bastrop County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Maryland native Stephen Scallorn (1787-1887) lived in Kentucky and Tennessee, where he practiced medicine and was active in the Primitive Baptist Church, before moving to Texas. He was attracted to the Republic by the favorable accounts of his oldest son John Wesley Scallorn, who had served with the Texas Army at the Battle of San Jacinto. Stephen Scallorn and his brother William came to Texas with their families in 1837-38 and settled in the vicinity of Plum Creek in Fayette County. There they were instrumental in the formation of the Hopewell Baptist church, an important early church in Texas. Later divided by doctrinal disagreements, the brothers helped form separate fellowships. Two of Scallorn's sons, John Wesley and Elam, died in defense of the Republic. Members of Capt. Nicholas Dawson's outfit, they were attacked by Mexican forces near San Antonio in 1842 and killed. Scallorn remained active in church organization and helped establish an Upton congregation at the age of 98. Twice married and the father of 14 children, he lived in Bastrop County with his son Francis. Stephen Scallorn died at the age of 100 and was buried in the nearby Scallorn Family Cemetery. (1981)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Stephen Scallorn was one of the ordinary families whose migration built the Republic of Texas. A Maryland-born frontier physician who had preached and doctored across Kentucky and Tennessee, he followed his son's glowing accounts of Texas after San Jacinto and settled near Plum Creek in the late 1830s, helping plant one of the region's early Baptist congregations. His long life spanned the whole arc of the Republic and early statehood — and cost him two sons, killed with Dawson's men in the border fighting of 1842.
Why it matters
His story shows how faith, family, and sacrifice knit together the thin settlements of the young Republic of Texas into a lasting American state.
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Related people
- · Stephen Scallorn
- · John Wesley Scallorn
- · Elam Scallorn
- · William Scallorn
Related events
- · Battle of San Jacinto
- · Dawson Massacre (1842)
Themes & tags
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