Ashbel Smith, M. D.

In 1838 Houston sent Smith to negotiate a treaty with the Comanches, and as chargé d'affaires to England and France from 1842 to 1844 he secured an English treaty of amity and commerce, improved relations with France and reported on the British antislavery party, which he saw as a danger to Texas. As secretary of state in 1845 he negotiated the Smith-Cuevas Treaty, in which Mexico acknowledged Texas independence; it angered annexationists, and he was burned in effigy at Galveston and San Felipe. At Shiloh he was badly wounded in the arm.

What the plaque says

Ashbel Smith, M. D. (1805-1885) Born in Hartford, Connecticut, this prominent physician, statesman, soldier, and educator received his degree from Yale Medical College in 1828. After a period of study in France, Smith returned to the United States to practice medicine in the state of North Carolina. He determined to go to Texas upon hearing news of the events of the mid-1830s and arrived in 1837, too late to participate in the revolution. He soon, however, was appointed surgeon-general of the Texas army and established a home, known as Evergreen Plantation, one mile east of this site. Smith later served the Republic of texas as secretary of state and as minister to Great Britain, France, Belgium, and Spain. After Texas attained statehood, Smith served several terms in the State Legislature. A Civil War veteran, he was elected captain of the Bayland Guards and colonel of the 2nd Texas Infantry of the Confederate army. Also noted for his work in higher education, Ashbel Smith served as president of the first Board of Regents of the University of texas and led support for establishment of its medical branch in Galveston. A significant leader during Texas' formative years, Ashbel Smith died at his home on Evergreen Plantation and is buried in the state cemetery in Austin. (1984)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site — 7.7 mi
  The 1,200 acres of coastal prairie and marsh where the Texas Revolution ended in eighteen minutes, and the 567-foot shaft of fossil-studded limestone that has stood over them since 1939.
• Space Center Houston — 13 mi
  The visitor center of NASA's Johnson Space Center at Clear Lake, with flown capsules, a shuttle replica riding a 747, and tram tours to Mission Control and a Saturn V.
• Emancipation Park — 24 mi
  The Third Ward park that freedpeople bought for Juneteenth in 1872, rebuilt in 2017 on Emancipation Avenue and still the center of the city's June 19 celebration.
• Sam Houston Park and the Heritage Society — 25 mi
  Ten historic buildings gathered in a downtown park below the skyscrapers, among them the 1870 house of the Reverend Jack Yates, built five years after emancipation.

More markers nearby

• Bell Prairie — 1.3 mi
• Bayland Orphans Home — 1.9 mi
• Morgan's Point Cemetery — 2.6 mi
• Bay Ridge / Morgan's Point — 3.2 mi