James Jackson Beeman

Beeman first settled in Red River County, near Dalby Springs, after arriving on December 6, 1840. By 1846 he was a justice of the peace in Dallas County. In Parker County he worked as a cabinetmaker and kept a small store on the Fort Worth-Fort Belknap road, five miles north of the site of Weatherford, and the county's first court met in a post oak grove at his home on June 2, 1856. He moved the store to Weatherford in 1858 and became postmaster. His second wife, Elizabeth Baker, taught school in Dallas County.

What the plaque says

James Jackson Beeman (December 21, 1816 - December 7, 1888) One of the first settlers in Dallas and Weatherford. Born in Madison County, Ill., came to Texas 1840. He helped cut first road in Trinity Bottoms, name Turtle Creek (1841), and plat city of Dallas, 1842. He guided Texas President Sam Houston to Indian parley, 1843; joined California Gold Rush, 1849; pioneered, Parker County, 1854; aided in rescue of Comanche captive Cynthia Ann Parker, 1860. Returned to Dallas to live, 1864. Died in Lampasas. (1971)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Hancock Springs Park — 1.6 mi
  Lampasas's city park on Sulphur Creek, with a spring-fed swimming pool that holds about 69 degrees all year, the walls of the old bathhouse and a golf course.
• Colorado Bend State Park — 17 mi
  Old ranch country on the Colorado above Lake Buchanan, where a spring-fed creek drops 70 feet over fern-covered travertine at Gorman Falls.
• Inks Lake State Park — 25 mi
  A state park on a constant-level lake of the Colorado, between Buchanan and Inks dams, with pink granite and gneiss at the water and CCC work along Park Road 4.
• Inks Dam National Fish Hatchery — 27 mi
  A free federal hatchery below Inks Dam on the Colorado, with thirty production ponds that draw birds and a look at how fish are raised from egg to harvest.

More markers nearby

• Garrison Greenwood — steps away
• Walter P. Acker — steps away
• James S. Gillett — steps away
• Thomas Pratt — steps away