James S. Gillett

Gillett's frontier began in boyhood. Born at Lincoln, Kentucky, in 1810, he grew up in Howard County, Missouri, alongside his brother-in-law Henry Smith, later the first provisional governor of Texas; three of Gillett's sisters married Smith in turn. On a trip to Santa Fe as a youth he and three other boys were captured by Osage warriors and released after two weeks. He lived in Santa Fe for years and learned Spanish, read law in Van Buren, Arkansas, and moved to Paris, Texas, in 1839. In 1855 a fire destroyed his adjutant general's office and its records.

What the plaque says

James S. Gillett (1810-1874) Lawyer and frontier fighter. Born in Kentucky. Attained rank of Major in Mexican War, 1846-49. He was elected to the 3rd Texas Legislature, serving 1849-50. Appointed by Gov. P. H. Bell, he was Adjutant General of Texas, Nov. 24, 1851, to Feb. 4, 1856. He was again in the Texas Rangers in 1859-60 and served under Confederacy in Civil War, 1861-65. He married Elizabeth Harper. One of their children was famed Texas Ranger James B. Gillett. (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

• Walter P. Acker — steps away
• Thomas Pratt — steps away
• James Jackson Beeman — steps away
• Garrison Greenwood — steps away