General John R. Baylor

Baylor's time as agent to the Comanches on the Clear Fork of the Brazos ended in 1857, when he was dismissed after accusing reservation Comanches of aiding raiders and feuding with his supervisor, Robert S. Neighbors. He then traveled North Texas preaching hatred of the Comanches and other Indians. He addressed mass meetings, organized a vigilante force of about 1,000 men and edited an anti-Indian newspaper, The White Man, published at Jacksboro and later Weatherford. Years after the war he moved to the Nueces canyon near Montell in 1878, and he is buried in the local cemetery.

What the plaque says

General John R. Baylor Born in Kentucky. Came to Texas Republic 1839. Colorful Indian fighter. In War against Cherokees 1840. Member Texas Legislature 1853. Comanche agent 1855-57. Delegate from Weatherford, Secession Convention. Commanding detachment of Second Regiment Texas Mounted Rifles occupied, took over supplies, Ft. Bliss. June 1861-- during campaign to extend Confederacy westward to the Pacific. Repulsed Federals, Mesilla, N. Mex., July 25. With 200 men took 700 Federals, their transports, arms, ammunition, 200 horses, 270 beeves, four cannon at San Augustin Springs, July 27. With Capitol at Mesilla, organized government, proclaimed Confederate control of Arizona, Aug. 1. Baylor became military, civil governor. Sent C.S.A. Treasury $9,500 captured at Ft. Fillmore. Supervised gold, silver mining for C.S.A. Order to kill instead of capture troublesome Apaches incensed authorities against him, had Baylor recalled to Texas, stripped of rank. As private "served guns in hottest of the fight" to recapture Galveston, Jan. 1, 1863. Salvaged U.S. warship parts to make cannon light enough to go into battle on back of mule. 1863-63 in Confederate Congress. Given new command. Made Brigadier-General 1865. Raised, led troops in frontier defense. Fear of his moves pinned down thousands of Federals in California, Arizona. Climaxed war service on Northwest Texas border. Post-war lived in San Antonio. Farmed, ranched Uvalde County. Buried in Montell. Erected by the state of Texas 1963.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Garner State Park — 17 mi
  The Frio River park that Uvalde County built with the Civilian Conservation Corps and named for its own vice president, where people have danced on the stone pavilion every summer since the 1940s.
• Real County Historical Museum — 20 mi
  A small county museum in Leakey, at the head of the Frio Canyon, with a log-cabin parlor, an 1880s horse-drawn hearse, a wool and mohair shearing machine and 1910s jail cells.
• Briscoe-Garner Museum — 26 mi
  The Uvalde house of John Nance Garner, the vice president who made the office a power in Congress, now a free museum to him and to Governor Dolph Briscoe.
• Uvalde Grand Opera House — 26 mi
  An 1891 Victorian opera house on the Uvalde square with a turret and a dragon weathervane, once owned by John Nance Garner and still staging volunteer theater upstairs.

More markers nearby

• Site of the Mission Nuestra Senora de la Candelaria (2nd Marker) — steps away
• Near Site of Nuestra Senora de la Candelaria Mission — steps away
• Montell Methodist Church — steps away
• Charles A. Lindbergh in Texas — 9.0 mi