John Hemphill

Before politics took him to Washington, John Hemphill was the Republic's and then the state's chief justice, from 1840 to 1858. Trained in South Carolina, he studied Spanish and Mexican law closely and regretted the Texas Congress's 1840 adoption of the common law. The Handbook of Texas credits his opinions with shaping Texas community property and homestead exemption law and notes his liberal reading of married women's rights. He was called the John Marshall of Texas. Earlier he had fought in the Council House Fight of 1840.

What the plaque says

(1803 - 1862) Star and Wreath. On the eve of secession, U.S. Senator Hemphill set forth to Senate January 1861 Texas' right to secede and again became a sovereign nation. Elected delegate provisional Confederate Congress at Montgomery, Alabama which drafted the new nation's constitution, mobilized manpower, set up financial structure, elected political leaders. Died in Richmond, Virginia, Confederate capital. A memorial to Texans who served the Confederacy erected by the State of Texas 1963.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• The Citadelle Art Museum — steps away
  A 1910 Baptist church saved from demolition in 1977, made into a family home filled with art, and given to Canadian in 2009 as one of the Panhandle's few art museums.
• River Valley Pioneer Museum — steps away
  The Hemphill County museum in Canadian, a Santa Fe division town of 1887 on the river breaks that held one of the first commercial rodeos in Texas and voted itself dry in 1903.
• Canadian River Wagon Bridge — 1.2 mi
  The longest pin-connected bridge in Texas, 3,255 feet of Parker trusses across the Canadian River at Canadian, built for wagons in 1916 and reopened as a footpath in 2000.
• Gene Howe Wildlife Management Area — 5.1 mi
  Five thousand acres of sand sage and cottonwood bottomland along the Canadian River east of Canadian, bought by the state in 1950 for wildlife research and open to walkers with a permit.

More markers nearby

• R. Dick Bussell — steps away
• First Church Bell — steps away
• First Baptist Church of Canadian — steps away
• Moody Hotel — steps away