Claiborne West

The man's name is on a county park that nearly went to someone else. In 1977 county officials considered naming it for Elvis Presley, The Record reports, but the historical society proposed a different name, and the park opened in 1979 as Claiborne West Park. It runs to 453 acres by the paper's count and is a wildlife and bird sanctuary on the Great Coastal Birding Trail, with about five miles of trails, a pond stocked with rainbow trout twice a year, camping and an amphitheater. When the paper reported in 2019, Harvey damage had closed three shelters.

What the plaque says

Claiborne West (1800-1866) Born in Franklin County, Tennessee, Claiborne West moved as a young man to Louisiana. He married Anna Garner in 1824 and they had nine children. His family immigrated to this area in 1825 and received a land grant in the Cow Bayou settlement. Soon West joined in the struggle for independence from Mexico. As one of the representatives from Liberty Municipality, he attended the 1832 Convention and the 1835 Consultation at San Felipe de Austin. West was responsible for the designation of Cow Bayou as Jefferson Municipality, the forerunner of Jefferson and later Orange County. He served as a representative from the municipality to the General Council and acted as local postmaster. At the General Convention at Washington-on-the-Brazos on March 2, 1836, West was one of 58 signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence. He helped draft the Republic of Texas Constitution. From July to October, 1836, West served in Franklin Hardin's Company of volunteers. He then served in the first Congress of the Republic of Texas. West moved from here to Montgomery County and later settled in Seguin. He was buried in the Riverside Cemetery at Seguin. (1979)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center — 10 mi
  More than 250 acres on Adams Bayou, begun by H. J. Lutcher Stark in 1937, with garden rooms, a cypress-tupelo swamp, a heronry blind and free pontoon tours in season.
• Stark Museum of Art — 11 mi
  A white-marble museum in Orange built by the Stark Foundation and opened in 1978, holding Western art, American Indian art, Audubon's Birds of America and Steuben glass, free to enter.
• Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum — 12 mi
  A re-created oil boomtown on the Lamar University campus, with a derrick, period shops, a 1941 granite monument and an optional re-enactment of the January 1901 Lucas gusher.
• McFaddin-Ward House — 12 mi
  A Beaux-Arts Colonial Revival mansion finished in 1906 and lived in by one family for 75 years, with free guided tours of three furnished floors, the carriage house and gardens.

More markers nearby

• Peyton Bland — 3.0 mi
• Site of The Kishi Colony — 3.1 mi
• Orangefield — 5.2 mi
• Mauriceville — 5.6 mi