Col. Jose Francisco Ruiz

Ruiz was a peacemaker with the Plains nations long before he signed for independence. After Medina in 1813 he spent years in exile, partly among Indian peoples. In 1821 he was commissioned to make peace with the Comanches and Lipans, and in 1822 he took a party to Mexico City, where the Lipans signed a peace treaty. In 1828 he wrote a report on the Indian tribes of Texas now kept at Yale. The Shawnees called him "a good man no lie and a friend of the Indians."

What the plaque says

Col. Jose Francisco Ruiz Officer in the Mexican Army, 1831. Signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence 1836. Senator of the first Congress of the Republic 1836-37. Born in San Antonio January 29, 1783. Died January 20, 1840. Erected by the State of Texas 1936

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Casa Navarro State Historic Site — 1.0 mi
  The adobe and caliche-block home of José Antonio Navarro, a native-born signer of the 1836 declaration, and the last remnant of the Tejano neighborhood called Laredito.
• King William Historic District — 1.1 mi
  Mission farmland turned German merchants' quarter on the San Antonio River, renamed in World War I, then saved by a neighbor who restored fourteen houses, starting with his own.
• Spanish Governor's Palace — 1.2 mi
  The last visible piece of the Presidio San Antonio de Béxar: a presidio captain's house with a 1749 keystone, a century as shops and saloons, and a romantic 1930 restoration.
• San Fernando Cathedral — 1.3 mi
  The Canary Islanders' parish church on Main Plaza, where Bowie married and Santa Anna raised a red flag, rebuilt in Gothic Revival around the walls of the 1750s church.

More markers nearby

• Placido Olivarri — steps away
• Alejo de la Encarnacion Perez — steps away
• Capt. Jose Antonio Menchaca — steps away
• Jose Antonio Navarro — steps away