Joel Burditt Crain

At San Jacinto, the Handbook of Texas says, Sam Houston tried to disguise himself by wearing Sergeant Major Crain's cap and riding his horse. Crain later carried the surrender dispatches to authorities in Nacogdoches County. After years in East Texas he came to McLennan County, where in 1853 he built one of the first sawmills in the county, on the Brazos seven miles south of Waco. He was also the first to plant cotton on the county's prairie land. Crain died in 1887 and was buried at Harris Creek, where the marker was placed at his grave in 1972.

What the plaque says

Joel Burditt Crain Serving as sergeant-major of Gen. Sam Houston's victorious army, accepted sword of Gen. Santa Anna's Chief of Staff, Almonte, in Texas War for Independence. Moved to Texas from Tennessee in 1834. Lived in San Augustine, Nacogdoches, Rusk,and McLennan couties. Received headright (a league and labor) plus 960 acres of land for military service. Married daughter of Gen. James Smith, for whom county was named. The Crains had 8 children. (1972)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Dr Pepper Museum — 12 mi
  The 1906 bottling plant of the Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Company, built where Dr Pepper outgrew a Waco drugstore soda fountain, now the Dr Pepper Museum.
• Armstrong Browning Library — 12 mi
  A three-story Italian Renaissance library on the Baylor campus built to hold A. J. Armstrong's Browning collection, dedicated in December 1951 and now, by its own account, the world's largest of Browning material.
• Waco Suspension Bridge — 12 mi
  A Brazos crossing opened in January 1870 as the longest single-span suspension bridge west of the Mississippi, tolled until 1889, closed to vehicles in 1971 and now walked.
• Waco Mammoth National Monument — 12 mi
  A bone bed on the Bosque River where a nursery herd of at least 19 Columbian mammoths was trapped and drowned by floodwater 65,000 to 72,000 years ago, left in place under a dig shelter.

More markers nearby

• Central Presbyterian Church — 4.7 mi
• Hewitt Baptist — 5.8 mi
• The Grange in Texas — 6.1 mi
• Speegleville Baptist Church — 6.1 mi