Historical Marker

George Washington Smith

Blue Ridge, Collin County · Texas

Smith's service shows up in two sets of records. A county-history page reports that in 1848 he filed for bounty land for Texas Ranger service as a sergeant in Preston Witt's regiment under John C. Hays, enrolled June 7, 1847 at Bonham for one year. In August 1848 Fannin County voters elected him constable, 9 to 0. The page says he held a headright of 4,428 acres and 177 more in Red River County from 1834. His grave was moved from the Blue Ridge cemetery to Grounds Cemetery because it was closer to his farm and better kept.

What the plaque says

George Washington Smith (1796?-1876?) Born in Wilson county, Tennessee, George Washington Smith came to Texas in 1834 with his wife Elizabeth Briggs. He fought in the Texas War for Independence (1835-36) as a private in Capt. Clendennin's Company, 1st regiment artillery. In the Mexican War (1846-48), he served as a sergeant in company, K, 1st regiment of the Texas Rangers, under Col. John Coffee (Jack) Hays. The Smith family settled in Collin county in 1852. When Smith died about 1876, he was buried near the entrance of the present Blue Ridge Cemetery. Later his grave was moved to the grounds cemetery (1.25 miles northwest). (1979)

Where it stands

33.30704, -96.39888 · Directions

Worth the stop nearby

Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary — 16 mi
A 289-acre sanctuary in McKinney that Bessie Heard founded at the age of 80, with five habitats, a 50-acre wetland and 6.5 miles of trails.
Sam Rayburn House State Historic Site — 21 mi
The two-story farmhouse west of Bonham that the longtime Speaker of the House built in 1916 and kept as his home, left as he lived in it and open as a museum since 1975.
Audie Murphy / American Cotton Museum — 22 mi
A Greenville museum of Hunt County's military heroes, including Audie Murphy, and of cotton, which keeps the engine of what it says was the world's largest inland cotton compress.

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