Wilson Van Dyke
Belton, Bell County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(Dec. 25, 1817-Aug. 3, 1881) A native of South Carolina, Wilson Van Dyke served as a member of the Somervell Expedition, which was organized in 1842 to expel the Mexican Army from Texas. Under command of Col. W.S. Fisher, he crossed the Rio Grande and was captured. A survivor of the "Black Bean Episode", Van Dyke was imprisoned near Mexico City until Sept. 1844. He later participated in muster activities during the Civil War and died at his home in Bell County. Recorded - 1984
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
South Carolina native Wilson Van Dyke joined the 1842 Somervell Expedition, mounted to drive the Mexican army from Texas, and pushed on across the Rio Grande in the ill-fated venture that followed. Captured, he survived the notorious "Black Bean Episode" — in which prisoners drew beans to decide who would be executed — and endured imprisonment near Mexico City until 1844, later taking part in Civil War-era musters before dying at his Bell County home.
Why it matters
Van Dyke's ordeal preserves the memory of the Mier Expedition and the Black Bean lottery, among the harshest chapters of the Republic of Texas's border wars with Mexico.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the early 1840s, the Republic of Texas was an independent nation with a dangerous problem. Mexico had never recognized Texas independence, and tensions along the border remained high. In 1842, Mexican forces made incursions into Texas and briefly occupied San Antonio, causing alarm across the young republic.
Texans responded by organizing a military force under General Alexander Somervell, intended to strike back and drive the Mexican Army out of Texas. The expedition marched toward the Rio Grande late in 1842, but it was troubled from the start by poor supplies, disagreement, and uncertainty about how far it should go.
When Somervell ordered his men home, several hundred of them refused to turn back. Under Colonel William S. Fisher, they crossed the Rio Grande into Mexico. That decision led to one of the most dramatic and tragic episodes of the Republic of Texas era.
People & events
Wilson Van Dyke, a native of South Carolina, was one of the men who went on with Colonel Fisher. The Texans attacked the Mexican town of Mier in December 1842, and after hard fighting against a much larger force they surrendered. There is a poignant detail hidden in the marker's dates: Van Dyke was born on Christmas Day, 1817, so the fighting at Mier came right around his twenty-fifth birthday.
The captured Texans were marched south into Mexico. After a mass escape attempt, most of the escapees were recaptured, and the Mexican government ordered that one in ten be executed. The method became infamous: the prisoners drew beans from a jar, white beans meaning life and black beans meaning death. Van Dyke survived this ordeal, which Texans have remembered ever since as the Black Bean Episode.
Survival did not mean freedom. Van Dyke was held prisoner near Mexico City until September 1844, about a year and a half after the bean drawing. After his release he made his way back to Texas and built a life there. During the Civil War he took part in muster activities, and he died years later, in 1881, at his home in Bell County.
Its place in the American story
Van Dyke's story preserves the memory of the Mier Expedition and the Black Bean lottery, one of the most harrowing chapters in Texas history. It shows how violent and uncertain the border with Mexico remained in the years after Texas declared independence.
Those unresolved tensions did not fade. The dispute between Texas and Mexico became part of the larger conflict that followed after the United States annexed Texas in 1845, leading to the U.S.-Mexican War and dramatic changes to the map of North America.
Van Dyke's later life is also part of the story. Like many veterans of the Republic's wars, he went on to live through statehood, the Civil War, and its aftermath. One ordinary life spanned several defining eras of Texas and American history, and markers like this help keep those individual stories from being lost.
If you visit
This marker in Belton honors a man who survived one of the darkest episodes in Texas history and came home to live out his days in Bell County. Take a moment there to think about the long journey that brought him from the Rio Grande to the prisons of Mexico and finally back to Central Texas.
The Black Bean Episode is a powerful story to share with older children and teens. It opens a conversation about chance, courage, and survival, and about the human cost of conflicts that can feel distant in the history books.
Belton is easy to reach from Interstate 35, which makes this a convenient stop on a Central Texas road trip. Pair it with other historic sites around Bell County to build a fuller picture of how frontier Texas grew from the days of the Republic into statehood and beyond.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Wilson Van Dyke
- · William S. Fisher
Related events
- · Somervell Expedition
- · Black Bean Episode
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Bell County
Belton vicinity, TX
Settlement along the Lampasas River began in 1847, and Bell County was created in 1850, taking its name from Peter Hansbrough Bell—a San Jacinto veteran, Mexican War officer, and governor of Texas. The county seat soon moved from Nolanville to Belton, and by 1860 nearly 4,800 people lived there. When the Civil War came, the county sent a dozen troop companies and supplied its cause with flour mills, a hat factory, tanneries, and workshops.
Six Miles East to Site of Little River Fort
Belton, TX
In November 1836, some twenty Rangers under Lt. George B. Erath built this Republic of Texas outpost, raising seven or eight cabins, a blockhouse, and a picket stockade around a half-acre near a spring. Rations were spare — an ear of corn a day, plus game, honey, and a little coffee. The Rangers withdrew by mid-1837, and settlers and hunters later used the site before its remains were cleared in the 1840s.
William Whitaker Reed
Belton, TX
William Whitaker Reed came to Texas from Tennessee in 1833 and joined Robertson's colony, taking land along the Little River just as the Texas Revolution swept the region. His family fled in the 'Runaway Scrape,' and he and his brother enlisted in the Republic of Texas Army, helping bury the remains of Fannin's men massacred at Goliad. Settling permanently after the war, Reed helped organize Bell County in 1850 and served as its first sheriff.
Captain Andrew Caddell
Belton, TX
Andrew Caddell was a North Carolina-born soldier who marched with the Texian army in the 1836 revolution, standing in the ranks as a private at the Battle of San Jacinto that won Texas its independence. He later rose to command a company of volunteers, part of the generation of frontier settlers who fought for and then built the young Republic of Texas. He and his wife Rhoda made their lives in the Bell County country, where this marker records their years.