Saturday, November 2, 2013

Echoes from Our Past: Early Settlers of San Marcos

Charles S. Cock was a former San Marcos mayor whose rock house on Hopkins Street is now a museum that opens for lunch on Fridays as the Cottage Kitchen.
David Dailey was a doctor and Methodist preacher. He traveled by covered wagon with his wife and ten children from Georgia. He built his home in the settlement known as Stringtown, which was located along present-day Hunter Road.
Joseph W. Earnest was a veteran of the Texas Rangers and the CSA. During the Civil War, he held the rank of private in the 33rd Regiment Texas Cavalry, also known as Duff’s Partisan Rangers.
Augusta Hofheinz and her husband, Daniel, emigrated from Germany and became proprietors of one of San Marcos’s most popular hotels, located on the corner of San Antonio Street and LBJ Drive.
D.P. Hopkins, for whom Hopkins Street is named, served as the local tax assessor-collector and was an amateur historian and journalist.
W.O. Hutchison was an attorney who rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Confederate Army and later served as a state senator. The home he and his wife, Leonora Hutchison, built across the street from the courthouse was later moved a few blocks from that location and now serves as the Texas State University Alumni Center.
William Lindsay made his mark on San Marcos when he joined Gen. Edward Burleson and Dr. Eli T. Merriman to lay out the town in 1851. He is the only one of these three city fathers buried in the town he helped design.
Eliza Pope Pitts Malone was one of the first residents of San Marcos. She moved to Texas with her family when she was just 10 years old. Her husband, James Lafayette Malone, Kyle Stapp, was appointed by the state of Texas during the Civil War as a tax collector and superintendent of farms and slaves for families of the men at the front.
Thomas McGehee was a scout during the Texas Revolution. His wife had to flee from their home during the famous Runaway Scrape. They later built a farm on Thompson’s Island as the first Anglo settlers in the San Marcos area.
William Pitts, brother of John Drayton Pitts, became the first elected official in Hays County when he served as a notary public. He was also a champion of education and operated a business college for women.
Peyton Roberts received the first Mexican Land grant of the property known as The Peyton Roberts Colony, which is currently located within the San Marcos Cemetery.
Walker Wilson participated in the Battle of San Jacinto. He never left Texas, but lived in four different countries: Mexico, The Republic, The Confederacy, and the United States.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

If the Dead Could Talk… Honoring Veterans Buried in the San Marcos Cemetery

Jack Arnold (1897-1918) American Expeditionary Forces, World War I – One of six former students of Southwest Texas Normal School who died in the service during WW I, Arnold was the son of SWT history professor M.L. Arnold.
*Colin Derek Bishop (1932-1953) British Royal Air Force
Ann Pearce Munson Caldwell (1800-1865) – Both her first husband, Henry William Munson, and second husband, Major James P. Caldwell, were Spanish American war veterans. Munson and Caldwell descendants are plentiful throughout Texas.
Emmie Craddock, Ph.D. (1915-1998) U.S. Navy, World War II – First female mayor of the City of San Marcos and Professor of History at what is now Texas State University.
Arthur Edward Gary (1918-1941) U.S. Army Air Corps, World War II – The first Hays County native to die in World War II, Gary was killed in the Philippines the day after the Pearl Harbor attack. Gary Air Force Base was named for him, and Gary Job Corps Center continues to bear his name.
Vicente Ramirez Gonzalez (1946-1968) U.S. Army, Vietnam War – Born in San Marcos, Gonzalez was killed in action in Binh Duong, South Vietnam, on January 9, 1968.
Louis Lawshe (1789-1879) – A veteran of four wars: the War of 1812, the Seminole and Florida Indian Wars and, at the age of 75, the Civil War (Second Battle of Manassas]. His daughter Georgia married Dr. Peter C. Woods.
**Charles McElroy (1933-1953)British Royal Air Force
Joseph “Jake” Claberon Sullivan (1923-2009) U.S. Marine Corps, World War II – Severely wounded in combat in the Marshall Islands, Sullivan joined the U.S. Postal Service after his discharge. He served 17 years as Postmaster of San Marcos.
Maurice T. Suttles (1898-1918 ) U. S. Marine Corps, World War I – Killed in action June 6, 1918, during an assault into Belleau Woods in France. He was the first person from San Marcos to die in this war; the local VFW Post is named in his honor.
Joe Valdez Vasquez Jr.(1917-1986) U.S. Army, World War II – After serving in the Army from 1941-1945, Vasquez became a leader in the San Marcos Hispanic community, along with his wife, Ofelia Vasquez Philo.
*Michael Anthony Gray Wood (1930-1953) British Royal Air Force
Dr. Peter Cavanaugh Woods (1819-1898) 32nd Texas Cavalry, Civil War – A medical doctor, Woods served as colonel of his regiment and was an early pioneer in the use of aseptic surgical techniques that saved the lives of many soldiers.
Thomas P. Yoakum (1915-1995) U. S. Army, World War II – Among the soldiers who liberated Nordhausen Concentration Camp, Yoakum went on to become a beloved San Marcos High School civics teacher.

*Two British Royal Air Force pilots killed in the same training exercise crash at Gary Air Force Base.
**British RAF pilot killed in a crash during a training exercise which originated in Texas.