Daniel McLean and John Sheridan

Daniel McLean left a letter that shows how uneasy the first Houston County neighbors were. Writing on January 27, 1837 to his son James, a student at Natchitoches, he reported that Indians had stolen every horse Mr. Greenwood owned and two from the rangers at Houston, and he expected more thefts when the grass rose. The next day, rangers from Fort Houston were attacked on the Trinity at Bonner's Ferry. McLean died that May. A county burial survey lists two graves on his original grant, his own and Hannah Sheridan's.

What the plaque says

Daniel McLean_John Sheridan Daniel McLean (1784 - May 10, 1837)_John Sheridan (April 5, 1796 - May 10, 1837) This area's earliest settlers; from North Carolina. McLean came to Texas in 1813 with Guttierez-Magee expedition, seeking to free Mexico from Spain. Returning when Austin opened Texas to Anglo-American colonization, he took up land in 1824 on San Pedro Creek (east of here); His brother-in-law John Sheridan settled on Silver Creek (300 yds. N). Near site of present Slocum (12 mi. NW) they were both killed by Indians while pursuing stolen horses. Mrs. Sheridan, with help of a boy, brought back the bodies. Each man was buried on his own land. (1971)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Mission Tejas State Park — 5.8 mi
  A 661-acre pine-forest park on the old El Camino Real near Weches, with a 1930s replica of the 1690 mission, the Rice Family Log Home and trails past remnants of the Spanish road.
• Caddo Mounds State Historic Site — 12 mi
  Three earthen mounds of an ancestral Caddo village and ceremonial center on the old El Camino Real, settled about A.D. 800 and still sacred to Caddo people, with a grass house and visitor center.
• Ratcliff Lake Recreation Area — 15 mi
  A Davy Crockett National Forest lake of about 45 acres, built by the CCC in 1936 from a sawmill log pond, with a swimming beach, camping and the start of the 20-mile Four-C Trail.
• Texas State Railroad Excursion Train — 20 mi
  A round trip of about 25 miles of track between the Palestine and Rusk depots through the Piney Woods, on a line built by prison labor and reopened as a tourist railroad in 1976.

More markers nearby

• The Edens-Madden Massacre — steps away
• Site of Old Town of Augusta — steps away
• John and Lucinda Nugent Sheridan — 0.3 mi
• Waneta Community and School — 2.8 mi