Governor James Webb Throckmorton

The Handbook of Texas gives the fuller 1866. Throckmorton chaired the constitutional convention, which wrote limited civil rights for African Americans, still without the vote, and declined to act on the Thirteenth Amendment on his argument that abolition was already law. He beat E. M. Pease for governor, 49,277 votes to 12,168. His term saw violence against freedpeople and Freedmen's Bureau agents. Gen. Charles Griffin demanded he protect Black Texans; Throckmorton refused, saying Texas did not support the Fourteenth Amendment. Tribes he negotiated with for the Confederacy had called him Old Leathercoat.

What the plaque says

Governor James Webb Throckmorton (February 1, 1825 - April 21, 1894) A doctor's son, James W. Throckmorton was born in Tennessee. He migrated with his parents to the Texas frontier in 1841 and settled near this site. At age 17, he became hunter and scout for his pioneer neighbors. He served in the Mexican War (1846-48). In 1848 he married Annie Rattan (1828-1895) and built a home near McKinney. Trained as a physician, Throckmorton disliked medicine and in 1851 entered law and politics. He served 1851-57 in the Texas Legislature, where he promoted railroad building. Later he became attorney for Texas and Pacific Railroad. He was state senator, 1857-61 and 1863-65. Although he upheld the right of secession, he was one of seven men who voted against Texas leaving the union at the Feb. 1861 Secession Convention. During the Civil War (1861-65), he fought in the Confederate Army. Elected governor in the summer of 1866, he grappled with postwar problems of frontier defense and federal military occupation. In July 1867 Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, commander of the 5th military district to which Texas was assigned, removed Throckmorton from office as "an impediment to Reconstruction" and named E.M. Pease provisional governor. Throckmorton continued his political career in the U.S. Congress, serving his North Texas district in 1875-79 and 1883-87. (1977) The Throckmortons settled 1/4 mile NE of US-75 N and Throckmorton Rd. Marker moved in 2016 to Pecan Grove Cemetery where he is buried.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary — 1.5 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.
• Rockwall County Historical Foundation & Museum — 20 mi
  A small museum in Harry Myers Park that keeps the evidence on Rockwall's rock wall, sandstone dikes that geologists call natural and folk tales call built.

More markers nearby

• Pecan Grove Memorial Park — steps away
• Fanny Finch Elementary School — 0.5 mi
• Bradley Cemetery — 0.5 mi
• The Birthplace of Rebekah Baines Johnson — 1.0 mi