In Memory of Colonel Benjamin Fort Smith and All Other Pioneers

The Centennial stone honors Smith as soldier; the Handbook adds what brought him to Texas. A former U.S. agent to the Chickasaw, he came by way of the slave trade. In the winter of 1833-34 he sailed to Cuba to buy enslaved Africans to work his Texas land. Importing slaves from Africa broke Mexican law, so authorities seized his vessel and half of his cargo. The people who remained were later put to work on fortifications during the Revolution. In January 1841 the Fifth Congress, where he sat for Montgomery County, passed an act permitting him to free them.

What the plaque says

In Memory of Colonel Benjamin Fort Smith and All Other Pioneers (FRONT) In memory of Colonel Benjamin Fort Smith, Dr. Robert C. Neblett, veterans of The War of 1812; Colonel Benjamin F. Smith, veteran of the Black Hawk War, 1832; Jared E. Groce, Joshua Hadley, William Robinson, delegates to the First Convention of Texas, 1832; Jared E. Groce, Francis Holland, Jesse Grimes, delegates to the Second Convention of Texas, 1833; Joshua Hadley, Dr. George M. Patrick, delegates to the Consultation, 1835; Benjamin Briggs Goodrich, Jesse Grimes, signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence, 1836; Francis Holland, Anthony Drew Kennard, soldiers in the Army, 1835; Sarah Rudolph Dodson, who made a flag for a military company, Army of Texas, 1835. Erected by the State of Texas 1936 (BACK) In memory of Tapley Holland, John Camp Goodrich, Alfred Calvin Grimes, martyrs of the Alamo; Anderson Buffington, Benjamin Fort Smith, heroes of San Jacinto; Francis Holland, Michael Kennard, John F. Martin, Dr. Verplank Ackerman, William P. Zuber, Soldiers in the Army, 1836; Robert Holman Dunham who was massacred in Mexico, 1842; Kenneth Lewis Anderson, Vice President of the Republic, who died in Anderson, July 3, 1845; William Carley, veteran of the Mexican War, 1846; and all other pioneers who lived in this vicinity during the days of the Republic.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fanthorp Inn State Historic Site — 0.4 mi
  A cedar-log dogtrot cabin of 1834 on the road through Anderson that grew into a seventeen-room inn and post office for travelers of the Republic, kept by one family until 1976.
• Navasota — 9.2 mi
  A railroad and cotton town where the La Bahia Road crossed the Navasota River, scarred by an 1865 explosion and yellow fever, and the home ground of the songster Mance Lipscomb.
• Star of the Republic Museum — 15 mi
  A star-shaped museum of the Republic of Texas years, 1836 to 1846, built at Washington-on-the-Brazos after a Brenham campaign and opened on March 1, 1970.
• Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site — 15 mi
  The townsite on the Brazos where delegates met in a cold, unfinished hall in March 1836 to declare Texas independent, with Independence Hall rebuilt and Anson Jones's Barrington farm worked as in 1850.

More markers nearby

• Grimes County — steps away
• Grimes County, C.S.A. — steps away
• Orphans Friend Lodge No. 17 Ancient Free & Accepted Masons — steps away
• Fanthorp Inn — 0.4 mi