James Shaw

Shaw's San Jacinto was fought on horseback. The Ohio-born settler, living in what is now Milam County by the early 1830s, rode as a private in Henry Karnes's company of Mirabeau B. Lamar's cavalry, and later in 1836 served as first lieutenant of a cavalry company under captains Thomas Robbins, William H. Smith and John Dyers. His Congress seats were Milam County's in the House and Milam and Robertson's in the Senate, and after annexation he sat in three more legislatures. Late in life he joined the Texas Veterans Association and, in 1877, married Courtney Kray.

What the plaque says

James Shaw (Star and Wreath) Born August 6, 1808; served in the Texas War for Independence; soldier at San Jacinto. A Representative or Senator in five Congresses, Republic of Texas. Died February 10, 1880. His wife Nancy Ann Shaw, born May 13, 1811; died August 9, 1871. (1962)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lake Somerville State Park and Trailway — 17 mi
  Two park units on an 11,000-acre lake between Austin and College Station, joined by a thirteen-mile trailway for hikers, cyclists and riders with primitive camps along the way.
• Texas Wendish Heritage Museum — 21 mi
  A museum at Serbin of the Wends, a Slavic people from Lusatia whose congregation of nearly 600 crossed on the Ben Nevis in 1854, losing seventy-three to cholera on the way.
• Round Top and Festival Hill — 29 mi
  A German village on the old La Bahía Road, named for a house tower, with an 1867 stone church, a Fourth of July kept since 1851 and a concert hall a pianist built without blueprints.
• Bastrop State Park — 30 mi
  The westernmost loblolly pines in the United States, cut off from the East Texas forest by a hundred miles of post oak, burned almost entirely in 2011 and growing back.

More markers nearby

• William W. Hawkins — steps away
• Lexington Memorial Cemetery — 3.3 mi
• Indian Camp Branch — 3.3 mi
• Lexington Schools — 3.6 mi