Thomas Jefferson Smith
Richmond, Fort Bend County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Born in Virginia 1808, reared in Georgia. Fought in Texas War for Independence, 1836, under James W. Fannin at Refugio Mission. Captured at Goliad, was spared to repair guns for Mexican Army. Escaped during Battle of San Jacinto. Settled in Richmond after the war; owned blacksmith shop, hotel, livery stable. Sheriff of Fort Bend County 1853-1857. Married twice and father of eight; he died Feb. 16, 1890.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Born in Virginia in 1808 and raised in Georgia, Thomas Jefferson Smith joined the fight for Texas independence in 1836, serving under James W. Fannin at Refugio. Captured at Goliad, he was spared to repair weapons for the Mexican army and escaped amid the confusion of the Battle of San Jacinto. He settled in Richmond after the war, running a blacksmith shop, hotel, and livery stable, and served as Fort Bend County sheriff in the 1850s.
Why it matters
His survival of the Goliad captivity and his later life as a frontier tradesman and lawman trace the arc of ordinary Texans who fought for independence and then built the young republic and state.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Thomas Jefferson Smith
- · James W. Fannin
Related events
- · Texas Revolution
- · Battle of San Jacinto
- · Goliad captivity
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Site of the Home of Randal Jones
Richmond, TX
Randal Jones joined James Long's filibustering expedition into Texas in 1819, served as a militia captain under Stephen F. Austin in 1824, and sat in the 1835 Consultation that set the Texas Revolution in motion. On land granted to him in 1824 he built a house where the famed scout Erastus "Deaf" Smith died in 1837. The state marked the site during the 1936 Texas centennial.
Paschal Paolo Borden
Stafford, TX
Born in New York in 1806, Paschal Paolo Borden came to Texas in December 1829 and took up arms in the fight for Texas independence. He joined the 1835 campaign that captured Bexar and fought at the decisive Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836. He lived on in the young republic and state he had helped create until his death in 1864, and the State of Texas raised this marker in his honor in 1963.
Brown-Beard Cemetery
Richmond, TX
Begun as the Pentecost Graveyard in the Big Creek settlement, this cemetery dates to at least 1841 and the burial of George S. Pentecost, one of Stephen F. Austin's "Old 300" colonists. It lies on land granted to another Old 300 colonist, Samuel Pharr, and holds Texas Revolution veterans, Confederate soldiers, and the Pentecost, Beard, and Brown families whose intermarriage gave the ground its name.
Site of the Home of Elizabeth Powell
Beasley, TX
By the time Elizabeth Powell received this land grant in 1831, the Texas frontier was filling with Anglo-American colonists under Mexican rule — settlers whose grievances would soon erupt into revolution. Five years later this spot became a hinge point of that war: it marked the farthest eastern reach of General Urrea's column and the southern turn of Santa Anna's army toward the Brazos and San Jacinto. After Sam Houston's decisive victory at San Jacinto in April 1836, the defeated Mexican forces camped near here as they withdrew.