Charles B. Metcalfe

Charles B. Metcalfe rode to Texas in November 1873 in charge of a drove of Morgan mules bound for Fort Worth, the Handbook of Texas says. Near Fort Concho he went to work for his uncle Francis C. Taylor on the San Antonio-El Paso Mail and became road agent along its 700-mile route. A court removed his disabilities as a minor so that he could be elected commissioner at eighteen. He leased and fenced 18,000 acres in 1883, fenced the XQZ pasture the next year and had brief trouble with fence-cutters. He died in San Angelo in 1941.

What the plaque says

Sponsor of 1918 measure to give Texas women right to vote. Born in Lawrence County, Tenn. came to Texas 1872. Helped map town site of Ben Ficklin, first county seat, Tom Green County. Grew first bale of cotton and installed first (water-powered) cotton gin in county; was one of first ranchers to work for law and order, in fencing rangeland. County Commissioner 6 years. Served 1915-1919 in Legislature of Texas. There his amendment to 1918 election bill gave vote in primaries to women of Texas three years before the national adoption of woman's suffrage. (1968)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Miss Hattie's Bordello Museum — 0.3 mi
  The upstairs rooms on Concho Avenue where a brothel ran from 1902 until the Texas Rangers closed it in 1952, shown on short guided tours with most of the furnishings original.
• San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts — 0.5 mi
  A free art museum on the Concho beside Fort Concho, founded in the fort's 1868 quartermaster building and known nationally for its biennial ceramics competition.
• Concho River Walk — 0.6 mi
  Four miles of lit trails along the North Concho through downtown San Angelo, rebuilt after voters taxed themselves in 2004, with gardens, sculpture, a river stage and stocked trout.
• Fort Concho National Historic Landmark — 0.7 mi
  The stone post at the forks of the Concho, headquarters of the Tenth Cavalry from 1875 to 1882, saved by a woman with a museum and now a city-run landmark of 23 original buildings.

More markers nearby

• Original Tom Green County — steps away
• Tom Green, Confederate General — steps away
• The San Angelo Standard — steps away
• First Presbyterian Church — steps away