Capt. Jasper N. Daniel

Judge Daniel took office in a county where politics had been settled with force. An early election-day slogan was Vote right or fight. The database of Texas lynchings records two hangings in Cotulla before his judgeship: an unidentified Hispanic man accused of theft on June 14, 1883, and Green McCullough, a white man accused of murder, on August 13, 1884. Cotulla's reputation grew so rough that three sheriffs and nineteen residents are said to have died in gunfights. Daniel served as county judge from 1892 to 1898.

What the plaque says

Capt. Jasper N. Daniel (Oct. 16, 1830 - Aug. 4, 1901) A Georgia native who migrated to Austin County, Texas, in 1853, Jasper N. Daniel was elected to the State Legislature in 1859. During the Civil War (1862-65), he was a captain in the Confederate army. In 1884 Daniel moved with his family to Cotulla. He served as justice of the peace and, from 1892 to 1898, as La Salle County Judge, helping bring order during this area's lawless frontier days. He married Edith Elizabeth Manly (1845-1918) and had 16 children. (1977)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Brush Country Museum — 0.6 mi
  La Salle County's local museum, with a segregated-schools display that sets the scene for the Welhausen School, where Lyndon Johnson taught Mexican American children in 1928-29.
• Chaparral Wildlife Management Area — 14 mi
  A 15,200-acre South Texas brush country research tract in La Salle and Dimmit counties, open to the public in spring and summer, with a short accessible trail and a long ranching past.

More markers nearby

• The Amanda Burks School — 0.4 mi
• The First United Methodist Church of Cotulla — 0.5 mi
• La Salle County — 0.5 mi
• Cotulla City Park — 0.5 mi