James Buckner "Buck" Barry, C.S.A.

When Buck Barry settled on the East Bosque River east of Meridian in December 1855, the Handbook of Texas says he held about twenty people in slavery. He had reached Texas from North Carolina in 1841, was wounded at Monterrey in the Mexican War, and had served as sheriff of Navarro County. Late in life he joined the Grange, sought a law against fence-cutting without success, and ran for state treasurer in 1898 on the People's party ticket. He lost, retired to his ranch near Walnut Springs, went blind, and died December 16, 1906.

What the plaque says

James Buckner "Buck" Barry, C.S.A. (1821-1906) Came to Texas from North Carolina in 1845. Fought in Mexican War and Indian campaigns. In the Civil War, commanded Confederate cavalry regiment in Texas outposts from Red River to Fort McKavett. Camps were a day's horseback ride apart. Patrols protected outer settlements and prevented Indian attacks and threatened Federal invasion from Indian territory. Elected to Texas Legislature 1883. Died on ranch near here. Left personal records of his years in frontier defenses. (1964)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Meridian State Park — 12 mi
  A 505-acre park in Bosque County where World War I veterans of a Civilian Conservation Corps company dammed Bee Creek in 1933-34 for a 72-acre lake and cut stone buildings around it.
• Dinosaur Valley State Park — 14 mi
  Theropod and sauropod trackways of about 113 million years ago in the bed of the Paluxy River, a National Natural Landmark where R. T. Bird found the first distinct sauropod tracks in 1937.
• Cleburne State Park — 18 mi
  A 1930s Civilian Conservation Corps park on the old Chisholm Trail crossing country, with a spring-fed lake, a hand-carved three-tiered spillway and a CCC bridge in Johnson County.
• Bosque Museum — 22 mi
  A Clifton museum holding what it calls the largest repository of Norwegian artifacts in the South and Southwest, with Bosque County finds some 10,000 years old and a log cabin built by the Olson family.

More markers nearby

• Captain J. J. Cureton, C.S.A. — steps away
• Boyhood Home of John A. Lomax — 8.7 mi
• Riverside Cemetery — 8.7 mi
• Chalk Mountain Cemetery — 11 mi