Historic Markers in Texas

Dallas, TX

Born in Tennessee in 1855 and raised on an Arkansas farm, John Shelby Wisdom came to Texas as a teenager and made his living in ranching and cattle driving. Settling with his wife Hattie and her fiddler son "Pink" Wright, he was so moved by a troop of Boy Scouts holding an Easter service in the woods near his land that in 1922 he deeded 185 acres to the Dallas Boy Scout council. Known thereafter as "Daddy" Wisdom, he spent his final years among the Scouts, mourned at his death in 1931 by thousands of them.

Ross, TX

John Silas Edens arrived in Texas as a boy in 1831, when it was still Mexican territory, and lived nearly every chapter of the state's frontier saga: he fought in the Republic of Texas army in 1836, rode with the Texas Rangers on Indian campaigns in 1841, farmed and raised a large family, and served the Confederacy during the Civil War. Back home in Houston County he opened the area's first school before moving on to McLennan County in 1868.

Galveston, TX

Irish immigrant and Galveston police officer John Smith built this raised, gallery-fronted home in 1890, its tall floor-to-ceiling windows designed to catch the Gulf breeze in the sweltering island summers. A decade later the house became a refuge, sheltering survivors of the catastrophic 1900 hurricane that devastated Galveston. Moved to this site in 1927, it stayed in the Smith family until 1978.

Rosanky, TX

John Socrates Darling came to Texas in 1835 and took up arms in the fight for independence, serving in the Siege of Bexar and then in the decisive Battle of San Jacinto in 1836. He lived out his years in Texas, dying in 1870 within days of his wife, Louranie; the state marked his grave in 1962.

Elkhart, TX

This late Greek Revival home was built in 1856 by John Starr, an 1848 settler, and his wife Susannah — sister of religious leader Daniel Parker and aunt of Cynthia Ann Parker, the girl famously taken captive by Comanches who became mother to the last Comanche chief, Quanah Parker. Its fireplaces were laid from hand-cut native sandstone, and it survives as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark. The house links one East Texas family to one of the frontier's most storied sagas.

Junction, TX

Born in Leon County in 1841 to pioneer Texan parents, John Sterling Durst served in the Confederate Army before a sermon called him to the ministry of the Church of Christ. When he moved his family to still-frontier Kimble County in 1883, he preached both locally and on summer tours across the state, and he won his neighbors' trust as county judge and school superintendent.

Chappell Hill, TX

First built in 1855 as a simple one-story dog-trot cabin, this Chappell Hill house was bought in 1873 by John Sterling and Claytonia Smith. Their son, a cotton farmer and community leader, transformed it into an elaborate Queen Anne home in 1910, adding an octagonal tower, gables, dormers, and a sweeping curved porch — the last such house left in the town.

Henderson, TX

Georgia natives John (1806–1854) and Mary Ann Strong (1809–1898) came to Texas about 1849 and became pioneer settlers of eastern Rusk County. They helped set aside land for a local Methodist congregation, for the Church Hill Male and Female Academy that operated in the 1850s, and for the community cemetery, while making their home near a nearby spring. Their donations seeded the schools, churches, and burial grounds that gave the settlement its shape.

Edna, TX

John Sutherland Menefee, born in Tennessee in 1813, fought at the Battle of San Jacinto that won Texas its independence, then served in the Congress of the young Republic of Texas from 1837 to 1840. He lived out his years in the new state he had helped create, dying in 1884. The State of Texas honored him with this marker in 1937, the centennial era of Texas independence.

Tilden, TX

Born in North Carolina in 1774, John Swanson Yarbrough came to Texas in 1832 and joined the fight for independence, taking part in the 1835 Siege of Bexar and the decisive Battle of San Jacinto. In 1858 he led a group of settlers to the Frio River, founding the Yarbrough Bend settlement in what became McMullen County. His grave was moved to this site in 1982 when the Choke Canyon Reservoir was built over the original cemetery.

Henderson, TX

John Campbell Patrick came from South Carolina in 1854 with his wife, five children, his brothers, and other families, and in 1855 bought 335 acres on the Shreveport Road. The log house he built became the heart of the Patrick Community, drawing a gin, grist mill, schoolhouse, and church around it. His widowed daughter Mary Bolding later ran a store, post office, and telephone switchboard from the family home until her death just before World War I.

Helotes, TX

As World War II ended in 1945, San Antonio theater manager John T. Floore bought land at a centuries-old creek crossing in Helotes and set out to build a community around it. By 1946 he had opened a store and dance hall, promoting country music acts from Bob Wills and Patsy Cline to Hank Williams and a young Elvis Presley. Floore also helped found the volunteer fire department and Lions Club and edited the local paper, and the hall still hosts music decades after his death in 1975.

Commerce, TX

John Thomas Knight came to Commerce in 1878 and spent his long life—he lived to 98—building the town's civic and business backbone. He served decades on the school board, ran Knight Brothers Grocery, led local banks, and helped bring the college that became Texas A&M University-Commerce to town. A Mason of 62 years who also raised cattle and cotton, he and his family left a deep imprint on the community.

Marshall, TX

Born in Ireland's County Antrim, John T. Mills rose to the highest ranks of law in a young nation still finding its footing: he served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Texas in the early 1840s, then as a district judge after Texas joined the Union. His service helped build the legal framework of a frontier republic-turned-state, and a Texas county bears his name in his honor. He rests here alongside his wife Octavia.

Crockett, TX

New York-born John Titus Smith came to Texas from Georgia in 1849 and settled on a cotton plantation at McKenzie's Bend on the Trinity River, where he operated the steamboat Ida Reese. He served as chief justice of Houston County in the 1850s and later in the state legislature, and fought in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. He and his wife Elizabeth raised a large family before his death in 1874.

Cuero, TX

John Tyler Wofford, a Confederate veteran and son of DeWitt County's first chief justice, built this house near Lindenau in 1877. About 1883 it was carefully taken apart—its boards numbered—then hauled here and reassembled. Its mansard roof, six original fireplaces, and hand-carved porch railings bearing the Lone Star of Texas still survive, a showcase of the craftsmanship of a prosperous post-war Texas family.

Del Rio, TX

Born in 1854 near Brescia, Italy, John Taini trained as a stonemason before an American contractor recruited him to work abroad. After building stone structures for the U.S. Army at Fort Clark, he settled in Del Rio, part of a wave of Italian immigrants who arrived in the 1880s, and put his hands on much of the growing town — the Val Verde County Courthouse, churches, railroad housing, jails, bridges, and dams across San Felipe Creek. Beyond the stone he laid, Taini donated land, served as an election judge, and helped lead the Italian Catholic Cemetery before his death in 1929.

Stephenville, TX

Orphaned young, John Tarleton worked his way from New England to Knoxville, Tennessee, spending four decades in a dry goods store while quietly buying up government land certificates until he held patents to thousands of acres. He came to Texas in the 1870s, ran a store in Waco, and by 1880 had settled near Stephenville in the cattle business. At his death in 1895 he left most of his fortune to found Tarleton College, which opened in Stephenville in 1899.

Houston, TX

Born in Gastonia, North Carolina in 1924, John Thomas Biggers discovered art at Hampton Institute under mentor Viktor Lowenfeld and went on to earn advanced degrees at Penn State. In 1949 he founded the art department at Texas State University for Negroes (now Texas Southern), where he had students paint the murals of Hannah Hall, and a UNESCO-funded 1957 trip to Africa inspired signature works like his 'Web of Life' mural.

Orange, TX

Born in Ohio in 1821, John T. Stark came to East Texas in 1840 and settled in Newton County, where he read law and kept a mercantile store. He enlisted as a private in the Texas infantry for the Confederacy in 1861 and rose to captain, and after the war moved to Orange to practice law and serve a term as county judge. His three marriages produced eighteen children before his death in 1893.

Longview, TX

Born in 1846, John Tyson Smith moved as a boy from Alabama to Upshur County and, after serving in the Confederate army, settled in Longview around 1872. He built a long career in public life—city tax assessor, justice of the peace, and five terms as Gregg County judge—while developing downtown real estate and running the Smith Upstairs Opera House in the early 1900s.

Midland, TX

John Valentine Pliska, born in Austria and brought as a boy to Texas, took up the blacksmith trade in Midland after 1903 and became a master smith renowned for his skill. A mechanical genius, in 1912 he built an aeroplane of his own design and flew it in flights lasting up to fifteen minutes, creating the first locally owned aircraft in the area. His forge also shod U.S. Army horses for General John J. Pershing during border troubles before World War I, and his surviving plane is now displayed at the Midland-Odessa air terminal.

Victoria, TX

John Van Bibber served in the fight for Texas independence and was among the few who escaped the Goliad Massacre of 1836, when hundreds of captured Texian soldiers were executed on Santa Anna's orders. The State of Texas honored his memory with this marker in 1962. His survival links a single life to one of the revolution's most infamous tragedies.

Houston, TX

This marker remembers John Viven, who served in Captain William Wood's company at the Battle of San Jacinto, the decisive 1836 victory that won Texas its independence. He later died in Houston in 1856, one of the revolution's veterans who lived to see the republic become a state.

Tolar, TX

Tennessee-born John W. Bull came to Texas in 1853, preempted land here in 1861 within sight of Comanche Peak, and in 1865 took part in the Dove Creek fight against Kickapoo people migrating through the region. After his land grant was approved, he hired mason Pat Gannon to build this stone house from a nearby quarry, chiseling the date "March 17, 1872" into the chimney. It stands as one of the area's earliest masonry homes on what was then the Texas frontier.

Dallas, TX

Kentucky-born John W. Lane came to Dallas in 1859 as a trained printer for the Dallas Herald, then joined the 18th Texas Cavalry in 1861 to serve in the Civil War. Returning home, he was elected mayor before resigning to serve as secretary to Governor James Throckmorton, and as a state representative he reshaped Dallas's future by amending 1871 legislation that redirected the route of the Texas and Pacific Railroad. That single change helped secure the city's growth into a rail hub.

Austin, TX

John W. McHorse, born in Alabama in 1819, marched with Hayden Arnold's company at the Battle of San Jacinto, the decisive 1836 clash that won Texas its independence from Mexico. His grave marker, placed by the state during the 1936 Texas Centennial, honors one of the ordinary soldiers whose eighteen-minute victory reshaped the map of North America.

Houston, TX

John W. Moore was in the thick of Texas's push for independence: he opposed the Mexican commander Bradburn at Anahuac in 1832, sat in the 1835 Consultation at San Felipe, and signed the Texas Declaration of Independence in 1836. He then served as the first sheriff of Harris County and a Houston alderman before his death in 1846.

San Antonio, TX

A North Carolina native who drifted west through Illinois and Missouri, John W. Smith came to Texas with Green DeWitt in 1826 and settled in San Antonio, where he became a leading merchant and political figure. He fought in the opening "affair at Gonzales," the storming of Bexar, and the siege of the Alamo, from which he served as a courier, and later at the Battle of the Salado. Smith became San Antonio's first mayor in 1837, held numerous offices, and served the Republic as a senator until his death in 1845.

Round Mountain, TX

John Walton Harrington was barely a teenager when he joined the army of the young Republic of Texas in 1836, the year of the Texas Revolution, serving into 1837. For his service he received a bounty land grant of more than a thousand acres — the kind of frontier payment that turned soldiers into stockraisers. He went on to hold land across several Hill Country and East Texas counties and raised a large family, all born in Texas.

Port Arthur, TX

John Warne Gates (1855–1911) made his name selling barbed wire and his fortune in steel before town promoter Arthur Stilwell drew him to Port Arthur in 1899. He helped finance Patillo Higgins' drilling that struck oil at Spindletop in 1901 and poured his wealth into the young city—a rice mill, a dairy farm, a hospital, a hotel, and the business college that became Lamar State College–Port Arthur. His $500,000 Classical Revival mansion, built near this site in 1909, epitomized his standing before it was razed in 1960.

El Paso, TX

Born in Bonham in 1853 and named for the founder of Methodism, John Wesley "Wes" Hardin became one of the most notorious gunmen of the Old West, claiming to have killed more than thirty men while insisting he only killed to save his own life. He served fifteen years in state prison for murder, was pardoned, and in May 1895 opened a law office in El Paso. Three months later he was shot dead by city constable John Selman.

Kenney, TX

John Wesley Kenney was one of the great pioneer Methodist preachers of early Texas. Pennsylvania-born and preaching from age nineteen, he arrived in 1833 when Texas was still Mexican territory where Catholicism was the law, and he helped organize Methodist societies anyway. In 1834 he rode a circuit spanning everything west of the Trinity River, and in 1836 he joined the fight for Texas independence.

Jacksonville, TX

Known as "The Peach King" for his sprawling orchards, John Wesley Love was born near Jacksonville in 1858 and, with his wife Texanna, had this home built in 1902–03 for their twelve children. The turn-of-the-century Victorian house is distinguished by a two-tiered wraparound porch and hand-finished millwork. It survives as a stately emblem of Jacksonville's agricultural prosperity and heritage.

Brownwood, TX

Pioneer ranchers Modie and Samuel Coggin began this Brownwood house after 1874, but it took its name from John Wesley Malone, who bought it in 1888 and added a second story in 1904. A hardware merchant, Malone was in business with lifelong friend Will H. Mayes, who went on to serve as Texas' lieutenant governor. The grounds even held Brownwood's first public swimming pool, built by Malone's father-in-law.

Woodville, TX

An Alabama native, John Wheat migrated to Texas in 1835 and claimed his headright and bounty lands here, naming many Tyler County creeks while hunting bear and other game. He served as a soldier in the Texas War for Independence, guarding a captured Mexican officer after the Battle of San Jacinto. Later a county commissioner, he donated the land for this cemetery and left descendants a wealth of frontier legends.

Kyle, TX

Born in Tennessee, John Wheeler Bunton came to Texas in 1833 and threw himself into the fight for independence, signing the Texas Declaration of Independence, helping draft a constitution, and fighting at the Siege of Bexar and the Battle of San Jacinto. A lawyer and rancher, he served in the first and third congresses of the Republic of Texas before settling in Hays County. In 1932 he was reinterred in the State Cemetery in Austin among the republic's honored dead.

Aransas Pass, TX

Chartered on January 29, 1935 by World War I veterans, this VFW post grew from the fraternal veterans' movement that took shape after 1899 and helped win the federal veterans' benefits established in 1917. In 1945 the community raised funds for a Veterans Memorial Home that has since sheltered residents through hurricanes and served as a relief shelter, disaster center and Red Cross site. Its rolls have carried veterans from two world wars through Vietnam and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Hallettsville, TX

John Wilkins Whitfield rose to brigadier general in the Confederate Army, leading the mounted command known as Whitfield's Legion. He fought at Pea Ridge and Iuka and commanded a brigade during the Vicksburg Campaign, later serving in the Texas legislature. His marker, erected by the state in 1963, records a career that spanned battlefield and statehouse.

Washington, TX

Virginia-born John William Smith fought as a soldier for the Republic of Texas and went on to serve in its Congress and become the first mayor of San Antonio. He died in 1845 at the town of Washington-on-the-Brazos, the very cradle of Texas independence, just as the Republic was folding into the United States. His life traces the short, dramatic arc of an independent Texas from revolution to statehood.

Huntsville, TX

Huntsville native John William Thomason Jr. taught school, studied art in New York, and worked as a Houston reporter before being commissioned a Marine officer in 1917. He saw some of World War I's fiercest fighting at St. Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne and won the Navy Cross for his valor at Soissons. A career Marine, he became a celebrated writer and illustrator whose 1926 book Fix Bayonets! brought national fame, and after further service in World War II he died in 1944—honored when a destroyer was named for him.

Mullin, TX

A North Carolinian by birth, John Williams came to this stretch of central Texas in 1855 and became one of the first permanent settlers of what are now Brown and Mills counties. He helped establish the region's early cattle industry, and the settlement of Williams Ranch grew up around his homestead while nearby Herd Pen Branch took its name from his roundup pens. With his wife Annie he raised six children who became pioneers of the community in their own right.

Latexo, TX

John Wortham (1804–67) helped shape Houston County from its beginnings, petitioning for its creation in 1837 during the Republic of Texas era. A soldier as well as a settler, he captained an independent ranger company, rose to major in the Republic's army, and served as quartermaster of the Texas Militia. Off the battlefield he was a college trustee and one of the Republic's first land commissioners, running a sawmill and gristmill on the East Texas frontier where he raised twelve children and was buried.

San Angelo, TX

John Yellott Rust learned the wire trade young, digging post holes and building telegraph lines in the East before moving west and, in 1898, recognizing San Angelo's potential. He bought the town's hand-operated telephone business and, with his brothers, personally dug the holes, set the poles, and strung the lines that reached surrounding towns. Under his half-century of leadership the firm grew into the second-largest independent telephone company in Texas.

Longview, TX

Johnny Cace, son of a Yugoslav immigrant fisherman from the Adriatic island of Prvic Luka, grew up around the seafood trade his family carried from Louisiana's oyster beds to Shreveport. In 1949 he opened Johnny Cace's Seafood and Steak House in Longview, living above the restaurant that became famous for fresh-shucked oysters and Creole cooking. A New Orleans–style building rose here in 1964, and the business grew into a beloved east Texas institution spanning three generations.

Argyle, TX

In 1884 members of the Prairie Mound Methodist Church set aside this ground as a religious campground, its brush arbor sheltering worship during ten-day summer camp meetings. A dependable well—named for former owner Hardin Johns—drew not only campers but settlers and travelers passing through. As nearby communities built their own churches the meetings faded, and the land was sold in 1913, though the well served neighbors until 1963.

Johnson City, TX

In 1892 local Masons bought this land from Julia Ann Moore Johnson, widow of town founder James Polk Johnson, for a lodge cemetery. Its earliest marked graves date from the 1890s and include community leaders and veterans of conflicts from the War of 1812 to Vietnam. Among more than 250 burials is the celebrated Texas Ranger Cicero Rufus Perry, who died in 1898.

Cleburne, TX

Johnson County was created in 1854 and named for Middleton T. Johnson, a South Carolina native and former Alabama legislator who became a leading figure in early Texas, serving in the Texas Rangers and fighting in the Mexican War and the Civil War. The county seat moved twice before settling at Camp Henderson, a Confederate recruiting camp beside noted springs, which in 1867 was renamed Cleburne to honor the Confederate general Patrick Cleburne. The frequent moves reflect the unsettled, fast-changing character of the North Texas frontier.

Alvarado, TX

In 1893, at the prompting of farmer and newspaper correspondent John James, Johnson County residents gathered for a picnic that grew into one of Texas's largest old-settler reunions. The first official reunion drew more than two thousand people to Gathings Park, and after moving among several towns the organization bought this ground for a permanent campground in 1906. Through pavilions lost to tornado and fire and rebuilt again, the reunion swelled into a beloved institution of parades, contests, and concerts drawing ten thousand and more.

Cleburne, TX

Nine men met at the Cleburne auction barn in 1951 to form the Johnson County Sheriff's Posse, a riding group meant to promote goodwill among horsemen and keep Old West traditions alive. They leased and then bought fairgrounds, built an arena, and in 1953 launched an annual PRCA rodeo that continues today. Along the way the Posse added youth programs, scholarships, and a women's auxiliary, weaving itself into the fabric of the community.

Segovia, TX

One of Kimble County's earliest settlements grew up on land once owned by famed Texas cattleman Samuel Maverick, taking its name from the Johnson Fork of the Llano River. The Wiley Joy family put down roots here, building a gravity irrigation system, a rock fence, and a two-room log house whose traces still remain. By the end of the Civil War eight families formed the "Joy settlement," which became a watering place for travelers and troops and, later, a stage stop.

Snyder, TX

W. A. Johnson built this Snyder home in 1910 from cement blocks he cast on site using his own sand and gravel, then finished the interior in oak woodwork crafted by an English carpenter. The self-sufficient construction reflects the resourcefulness of early West Texas builders. It was recorded as a Texas Historic Landmark in 1964.

Arlington, TX

Johnson Station began in the 1840s as a ranger station and trading post on the North Texas frontier, and its cemetery remains the clearest reminder of that vanished settlement. The oldest marked grave dates to 1863, though older, unmarked burials likely lie among them; here rest pioneer families, Civil War veterans, and charter members of an early Masonic lodge, in a district long since absorbed into Arlington.

San Angelo, TX

The congregation began at the turn of the century, when Mrs. W.A. Pringle set out to find neighbors in the San Angelo area who shared her Church of Christ faith. A 1900 revival led by Andrew Jackson McCarty drew a small group into regular worship, and in 1901 they bought a house for services under their first minister, T.B. Larimore. The church grew with the city — into larger buildings in 1906 and 1936, into local and foreign missions by the 1940s, and finally into a new home on Johnson Street in 1963.

Waco, TX

Merchant Sanford Taylor built this two-story pink brick house in Waco between 1873 and 1879 as a plain residence, but it took on grandeur after 1912 when new owners added a north wing, a portico, and French doors with delicate fan-light tracery. In 1957 it was purchased for the Waco Council of Garden Clubs and became the Nell Pape Garden Center. Its evolving architecture mirrors the rising fortunes of Gilded Age Waco.

Cleburne, TX

This marker honors the two Confederate officers who gave their names to Johnson County and its seat. Colonel Middleton T. Johnson, a legislator and Texas Ranger who had fought in the Mexican War, raised the 14th Texas Cavalry for Confederate service. General Patrick R. Cleburne, an Irish immigrant lawyer from Arkansas, rose to major general and led Texans of Granbury's Brigade with such tenacity that he became known as the "Stonewall Jackson of the West" before falling at the Battle of Franklin in 1864.

Stephenville, TX

Settled before 1860 on the main road from Stephenville to Glen Rose, the community of Johnsville took its name from John Z. Martin, its first postmaster in 1901. In its prime it had general stores, a cotton gin, a blacksmith, lodges, a school, and a church, and its cemetery — formally established in 1910 on land near the Christian church — holds pioneers of every trade. School consolidation in 1948 and the slow drift of population left the church and cemetery as the last records of the town.

Henderson, TX

On this slope in 1930, 70-year-old Oklahoma wildcatter C. M. "Dad" Joiner brought in the discovery well of the vast East Texas Oil Field with a patched-together rig and a crew that often went unpaid through the Depression. After earlier failures, driller E. C. Laster shrugged "this is as good a place as any," and the Daisy Bradford No. 3 blew in that October, sending oil over the crown block. The strike touched off a frenzied boom, with cars bumper-to-bumper and derricks rising in every direction.

Cleburne, TX

John B. Joiner built a one-story farmhouse on this Cleburne land in 1895 and sold it in 1912 to the Long family. Banker Joseph Benjamin Long and his wife Lorena added the second story, and the couple raised their family here amid civic and church life. During World War II, with her two sons serving overseas, Lorena worked as a librarian with the Women's Army Corps — a chapter reflected in the home, which the family kept until 1997 and which blends Classical columns with Queen Anne details beneath a pronounced belvedere.

Jollyville, TX

This pioneer burial ground was formally set aside by John Grey Jolly and his wife Nancy Isabel, for whom the community of Jollyville was named and who both rest here. The earliest marked grave dates to 1872, and among those buried are five citizens of the Republic of Texas from the Strode family, who settled the area in 1841. The last burial, a Confederate veteran, came in 1929, closing nearly a century of the community's history.