Erastus ("Deaf") Smith

After San Jacinto, Houston entrusted Smith with Santa Anna's order telling Gen. Vicente Filisola to evacuate Texas, and Thomas J. Rusk kept sending him out to scout. His family, left destitute by the war, was living at Columbia. In November 1836 the Texas Congress granted him the Ramón Músquiz property on San Antonio's Military Plaza as a reward. He then raised a company of rangers that defeated a band of Mexicans at Laredo on February 17, 1837. On hearing of his death, Houston called him "my stay in darkest hour" in a letter to Anna Raguet.

What the plaque says

Erastus ("Deaf") Smith (April 17, 1787 - November 30, 1837) Most famous scout in Texas War for Independence. Obeyed Gen. Sam Houston's strategic order, then raised San Jacinto Battle Cry: "Fight for your lives! Vince's Bridge has been cut down." A native of New York, Smith settled in 1821 in San Antonio. Trading in land and goods, he traveled Texas province, making him invaluable guide for Army during the War for Independence. He married Guadalupe Ruiz Duran. They had three daughters. Dying here in home of Randall Jones (a friend), he was buried in Calvary Churchyard, Houston at 6th. Grave is now unidentified. (1973)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Brazos Bend State Park — 17 mi
  Oak and pecan bottomland, lakes and alligators on the Brazos River 45 miles from downtown Houston, with the museum's George Observatory in the woods.
• The Menil Collection — 24 mi
  John and Dominique de Menil's free museum in Montrose: a grey-sided Renzo Piano building among bungalows, holding antiquities, Surrealism and art of Oceania under natural light.
• Museum of Fine Arts, Houston — 24 mi
  The oldest art museum in Texas, grown from a 1900 schoolroom art league into a campus of Watkin, Mies van der Rohe and later buildings, with Ima Hogg's Bayou Bend up the bayou.
• Rothko Chapel — 25 mi
  An octagonal chapel open to all faiths, built by the de Menils around fourteen dark canvases by Mark Rothko, with Barnett Newman's Broken Obelisk standing in the pool outside.

More markers nearby

• Constantine W. Buckley — steps away
• Early Courthouse Square — steps away
• Jane Long Boarding House — 0.2 mi
• Morton Lodge No. 72, A. F. & A. M. — 0.2 mi