Benjamin F. Highsmith

Highsmith belongs to the Alamo's last weeks as much as to the Rangers. Travis sent him from Bexar in February 1836 with an appeal for help to Colonel James Fannin at Goliad. Coming back, he found the town already held by Mexican troops, and cavalry chased him about six miles from Powder House Hill before he reached Gonzales. Houston later used him as a courier, and with David Kent he carried the order telling Fannin to leave Goliad. He fought at San Jacinto in William Ware's company and moved to Bandera County in 1882.

What the plaque says

Benjamin F. Highsmith Served in the Army of Texas, 1835-36 a Ranger under Capt. John C. Hays, a member of the Somervell Expedition, 1842 born in Missouri Sept. 11, 1817. Died Nov. 20, 1905. His wife, Elizabeth Turner Highsmith, born in Missouri March 22, 1836, died Oct. 7, 1900.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Garner State Park — 12 mi
  The Frio River park that Uvalde County built with the Civilian Conservation Corps and named for its own vice president, where people have danced on the stone pavilion every summer since the 1940s.
• Lost Maples State Natural Area — 14 mi
  A canyon of the upper Sabinal where a relict stand of bigtooth maples turns color each autumn, a sight that drew crowds up a gravel road long before there was a park.
• Real County Historical Museum — 15 mi
  A small county museum in Leakey, at the head of the Frio Canyon, with a log-cabin parlor, an 1880s horse-drawn hearse, a wool and mohair shearing machine and 1910s jail cells.

More markers nearby

• Jones Cemetery — steps away
• Utopia — 1.2 mi
• Utopia Baptist Church — 1.3 mi
• Site of Old Taylor School — 1.8 mi