Timothy Pickering Jones
Seguin, Guadalupe County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Star and Wreath Born November 22, 1814. Entered Texas on his birthday 1835. An officer in the Texas War for Independence 1835-36. Captain of a company in the Mexican War. Colonel Sixth Tennessee Regiment 1861. Died in Texas, October 18, 1904. Erected by the State of Texas 1962
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Timothy Pickering Jones entered Texas on his twenty-first birthday in 1835 and promptly took up arms as an officer in the Texas War for Independence. His long soldiering life spanned three conflicts: he captained a company in the Mexican War and later commanded the Sixth Tennessee Regiment as a Confederate colonel in 1861. He died in Texas in 1904, and the state erected this Confederate-style marker over his grave in 1962.
Why it matters
His career threads through a generation of American conflict, from the birth of the Texas Republic to the Civil War, in a single soldier's life.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Timothy Pickering Jones lived through almost the whole nineteenth century and saw Texas go from a Mexican province to an independent republic, a U.S. state, a Confederate state, and a state again. His life followed the major conflicts that shaped Texas and the nation.
When he arrived in late 1835, Texas was in revolt. Fighting had begun that fall, and volunteers from the United States were coming in to join the struggle that would end with independence in 1836. A decade later, the annexation of Texas helped bring on war between the United States and Mexico. In 1861, the nation itself split apart in the Civil War.
Seguin, where Jones is remembered, was founded in the late 1830s along the Guadalupe River and named for Juan Seguín, a Tejano leader of the Texas Revolution. It grew up through the same decades that Jones's long life spanned.
People & events
The marker gives Jones's life in a few lines, and each one points to a larger story. He was born on November 22, 1814, and he entered Texas on his birthday in 1835, the day he turned twenty-one. He arrived in the middle of a revolution.
He served as an officer in the Texas War for Independence of 1835-36. When the United States and Mexico went to war a decade later, he captained a company. In 1861, at the start of the Civil War, he was colonel of the Sixth Tennessee Regiment. The marker does not say how he came to lead a Tennessee unit, and we should not guess, but it does show a man who moved between the young Southern states and Texas during these years.
Jones lived on long after the fighting. He died in Texas on October 18, 1904, just short of his ninetieth birthday. By then he was one of the last links to the generation that fought for Texas independence. In 1962 the State of Texas placed this memorial, carved with a star and wreath, to honor him.
Its place in the American story
Few lives connect so many turning points in American history. One man's service reached from the Texas Revolution, through the U.S.-Mexican War that redrew the map of North America, to the Civil War that nearly broke the Union. Jones's career is a reminder that these were not distant chapters to the people who lived them. They happened within a single lifetime.
His story also shows how closely Texas was tied to the rest of the South and the nation. Settlers and volunteers came and went between Texas and the older states, and the same men often turned up in conflict after conflict.
The 1962 marker belongs to a long Texas tradition of honoring veterans of the revolution. Like many memorials, it records what the state chose to remember about him: his service in each of the conflicts of his time.
If you visit
This is a memorial to one person, so visit it the way you would visit any grave: quietly and respectfully. Look for the star and wreath on the marker, a simple emblem that speaks for the State of Texas.
Read the dates and do the math for yourself. Arriving on his twenty-first birthday and dying near ninety, Jones lived across three wars and almost a full century. It is a good thing to point out to children, who may be surprised that one person could have seen so much.
Seguin itself rewards a stop, with its setting on the Guadalupe River and its connection to Juan Seguín and the Texas Revolution. Pair this memorial with other revolutionary-era sites in the region to follow the generation that Jones belonged to.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Timothy Pickering Jones
Related events
- · Texas War for Independence
- · Mexican War
- · Civil War
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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