Jefferson Davis Smith

The brothers were taken on February 26, 1871, while herding sheep near the family home on Cibolo Creek between San Antonio and Boerne. Their sisters Amanda and Caroline tried a rescue that failed; their father, Capt. Henry Smith, and John W. Sansom raised Rangers and militia who, with a posse under Charles Schreiner, chased the raiders from near Kendalia to Fort Concho without success. Jeff, a fiddler, later rode as an Old Time Trail Driver, and he and Clint told their story to J. Marvin Hunter for a book. He is buried in the Coker Methodist Cemetery.

What the plaque says

Jefferson Davis Smith (1862-1940) Jefferson (Jeff) Davis Smith, son of Henry M. and Fanny (Short) Smith, was born in Kendall County, Texas. Jeff, age 9, and his brother Clint, age 11, were kidnapped by Lipan and Comanche Indians while herding sheep near their home in 1871. Jeff was reportedly bought by Apache Chief Geronimo and made to join his tribe. Mexican bandits captured him to return him to his family for a $1,000 reward about 1878. He married Julia Harriett Reed in 1894 and moved to San Antonio. Recorded - 1993

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• The Alamo — 9.0 mi
  Mission San Antonio de Valero before it was a fort: a church its builders never finished, a thirteen-day siege in 1836, and the Army gable of 1850-52 that became its emblem.
• Spanish Governor's Palace — 9.1 mi
  The last visible piece of the Presidio San Antonio de Béxar: a presidio captain's house with a 1749 keystone, a century as shops and saloons, and a romantic 1930 restoration.
• San Fernando Cathedral — 9.1 mi
  The Canary Islanders' parish church on Main Plaza, where Bowie married and Santa Anna raised a red flag, rebuilt in Gothic Revival around the walls of the 1750s church.
• Casa Navarro State Historic Site — 9.2 mi
  The adobe and caliche-block home of José Antonio Navarro, a native-born signer of the 1836 declaration, and the last remnant of the Tejano neighborhood called Laredito.

More markers nearby

• John "Jack" Coker — steps away
• Route of El Camino Real — 3.7 mi
• King's Highway - Camino Real - Old San Antonio Road — 3.7 mi
• Lockhill School — 5.5 mi