Alexander Thomson, Jr.

Thomson's most lasting act was a resolution. On December 26, 1835, as Viesca's delegate to the Consultation, he moved to rename his municipality Milam, in honor of Benjamin R. Milam. He had mastered seven trades, and surveying, the most useful for placing colonists, brought him to Robertson's colony. The same year he chaired the Methodist quarterly conference and helped raise $300 for a pastor's salary, probably the first such effort by Protestants in Texas. He married twice and fathered thirteen children.

What the plaque says

Alexander Thomson, Jr. (August 29, 1785 - June 1, 1863) A leader in colonizing Texas, Alexander Thomson, Jr., was born in St. Matthew's Parish, South Carolina, the only son of Alexander and Lucy (Fontaine) Thomson. He later lived in Georgia before moving to Tennessee. There, in 1830, he became partner with empresario Sterling C. Robertson in the development of the Robertson Colony. Conducting a number of families who had signed agreements to settle in the Robertson Colony, Thomson crossed into Texas and came to Nacogdoches three days after Mexican officials there received notice of an 1830 law requiring passports of immigrants. After Thomson tried unsuccessfully to have the rule waived for hardship reasons, the party bypassed Nacogdoches and made a new trail that came to be called the Tennesseans' Road. Thomson lived for a time in Austin's Colony, representing District of Hidalgo (now Washington County) at Texas Convention of 1832. By 1835, when he was Consultation delegate from Viesca (later Milam Municipality), he lived in and served as official surveyor of Robertson's Colony. Still a leader, he was executor of Robertson's estate in 1842. Married twice and the father of 13 children, Thomas was the ancestor of many noted Texans, including Thaddeus A. Thomson, United States envoy to Colombia and signer of the Thomson-Urrutia Treaty in 1914. He was also a leader in the early Methodist church in Texas. He is buried in the Thomson Family Cemetery (approx. 2 mi. NE) near Chriesman, also known as Yellow Prairie. He is remembered today as a pioneer and a patriot. (1972, 2004)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Milam County Courthouse and Jail — 21 mi
  Cameron's 1892 Renaissance Revival courthouse and the 1895 St. Louis-built jail beside it, now the county museum, are listed together on the National Register.
• Lake Somerville State Park and Trailway — 23 mi
  Two park units on an 11,000-acre lake between Austin and College Station, joined by a thirteen-mile trailway for hikers, cyclists and riders with primitive camps along the way.
• George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum — 25 mi
  The library of the forty-first president on the Texas A&M campus, opened in 1997, where George and Barbara Bush and their daughter Robin are buried in a family plot on the grounds.
• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 31 mi
  A crossroads north of Brenham that was the richest town in Texas when it won Baylor University in 1845, refused the railroad, and lost the college to Waco and Belton in 1886.

More markers nearby

• Town of Chriesman — steps away
• Horatio Chriesman — 0.6 mi
• St. Matthew Missionary Baptist Church — 5.8 mi
• Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church — 6.5 mi