Captain Jesse Burnam

An illness from the War of 1812 sent Burnam, born poor in Kentucky, looking for a warmer climate. His crossing on the Colorado was for years the northernmost settlement on the river. As a militia captain he took part in the campaigns of 1823 and 1824 that drove the Karankawa people from Fayette and Colorado counties, and in 1840 he rode with John H. Moore against the Comanches. He held thirteen people in slavery in 1860. He divided his fortune in 1864 and died on Double Horn Creek in 1883, aged ninety-one.

What the plaque says

Captain Jesse Burnam Texas Patriot Jesse Burnam (also spelled Burnham), born in Madison county, Kentucky, was the youngest son of seven children. In 1812, Jesse married Temperance Null Baker in Shelbyville, Tennessee. Jesse was a private in the Mounted Volunteers of Tennessee in the War of 1812, serving from Sep. 1814 to Apr. 1815, including the Battle of New Orleans. Jesse, Temperance and family arrived in Texas in 1821, settling at Pecan Point (Red River County). By 1823, they were among Stephen F. Austin's "Old Three Hundred," building a home, fortified trading post and ferry service on the Colorado River frontier. Austin commissioned Burnam as a captain of militia in May 1824. Temperance died in 1833, leaving Jesse with nine children. He later married Nancy Ross, who bore him seven more children. Jesse was a delegate to the Conventions of 1832 and 1833 and the Consultation of 1835. He aided Col. James W. Fannin in gathering volunteers and supplies during the Texas Revolution, and Gen. Sam Houston arrived at Burnam' s Crossing on March 17, 1836, ordering the ferry, homestead and store burned ahead of the advancing Mexican army. Jesse was a Representative in the Republic of Texas' provisional government and its first congress. Jesse and Nancy moved their family to Burnet County in 1855, following two older sons who had settled here. Jesse's land was southeast of present-day Marble Falls on Double Horn Creek, where he established one of the first sheep raising operations in the area and a large wheat farm. The historic Burnam homestead, now in the family's fifth generation, includes a log cabin, two-story home, spring house, and family cemetery where Jesse, Nancy and others are buried. (2014)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Pedernales Falls State Park — 13 mi
  The Pedernales stepping down over layered limestone east of Johnson City, a river that can turn from a placid stream to a torrent in minutes.
• Longhorn Cavern State Park — 14 mi
  A cave carved by an underground river in the Hill Country, cleared of mud by hand in the 1930s and reached down 52 stone steps on a guided tour.
• Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge: Doeskin Ranch — 14 mi
  A free federal refuge north of Lake Travis kept for two songbirds that need old juniper and oak, with trails at the Doeskin Ranch unit near Bertram.
• Inks Dam National Fish Hatchery — 17 mi
  A free federal hatchery below Inks Dam on the Colorado, with thirty production ponds that draw birds and a look at how fish are raised from egg to harvest.

More markers nearby

• Dead Man's Hole — 2.0 mi
• Marble Falls Factory Site — 4.7 mi
• Michel's Drug Store — 5.0 mi
• St. Frederick Baptist Church — 5.2 mi