Col. John Hamilton McNairy

McNairy's name is tied to the end of the Regulator-Moderator feud. The Handbook of Texas says he signed the 1844 treaty that ended the war as a representative of the Regulators. Its war entry names a John McNairy among those who accepted the agreement for the Regulators, and says he and Middleton Johnson had just lost a race for the Texas Congress to the Moderators James Truitt and John Dial. He bought land near Coffeeville in 1847. A 1946 county history says the first regular county election, August 7, 1848, sent him to the legislature.

What the plaque says

Col. John Hamilton McNairy Born 1804 Guilford County, N. C. Lived in Tennessee; came to Shelby County, Texas, 1837; to Upshur County, 1847. Here he was first Representative elected from county, 1848. Married twice. Was father of eleven children. Died at Old Coffeeville, Jan. 7, 1853. (1967)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Daingerfield State Park — 13 mi
  A pine-and-hardwood park built in 1935-39 by a white and a Black Civilian Conservation Corps company, with a dammed lake, Bass Lodge and a 2.4-mile loop trail around the water.
• Jefferson Historical Museum — 24 mi
  A four-floor museum in Jefferson's 1888-90 federal post office and courthouse, with rooms for African-American history, Jewish heritage, the Caddo and Diamond Bessie, bought by the historical society in 1965 for $8,100.
• Excelsior House Hotel — 25 mi
  A brick-and-timber hotel at 211 West Austin that began as a river captain's boarding house in 1858 and was revived by a garden club in 1959, and still takes guests with rosewood furniture.
• Lake Bob Sandlin State Park — 25 mi
  A 1987 state park on a 9,000-acre reservoir, where a Republic of Texas stockade called Fort Sherman stood in 1838 and the Caddo lived from A.D. 800 to 1860, now with fishing piers, trails and cabins.

More markers nearby

• Old Coffeeville, C. S. A. — steps away
• Site of the Guarantee State Bank — 3.5 mi
• Port Bolivar & Iron Ore Railroad — 3.6 mi
• Murry Institute — 3.8 mi