John Ireland

Ireland was a constable and sheriff in Kentucky before reading law, and in 1853 he settled as a lawyer at Seguin, where he became mayor in 1858; in 1860 he reported owning six enslaved people. After serving as a district judge in 1866-1867, he was removed by Philip Sheridan as "an impediment to Reconstruction." In the legislature his fight against land grants and subsidies to railroads, especially the International-Great Northern, earned him the name "Oxcart John." As governor he reversed the rapid sale of public lands, reduced pardons and signed the 1884 act allowing independent school districts.

What the plaque says

John Ireland Born in Hart County, Kentucky January 1, 1827 Died in San Antonio, Texas March 5, 1896 [Back of headstone] An officer in the Confederate Army Senator in the State Legislature Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas Governor of Texas January 16, 1883 to January 18, 1887 Erected by the State of Texas 1936

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas State Cemetery — steps away
  A hill east of the Capitol that began with one general's grave in 1851 and now holds Stephen F. Austin, governors, Barbara Jordan and more than 2,000 Confederate veterans and widows.
• French Legation State Historic Site — 0.3 mi
  A raised pine house built in 1840 and 1841 for France's envoy to the Republic of Texas, who left Austin in a rage over a neighbor's pigs before it was finished.
• George Washington Carver Museum — 0.4 mi
  East Austin's museum of Black history and culture, grown from a segregated branch library moved across town in 1933, with a permanent exhibit on Juneteenth at its core.
• Texas State Capitol — 1.0 mi
  Austin's fourth statehouse, a Renaissance Revival capitol of 1888 that stands 311 feet to its Goddess of Liberty and was restored after the 1983 fire.

More markers nearby

• Capt. Jesse Billingsley — steps away
• Gen. Alexander Watkins Terrell — steps away
• William P. Hardeman — steps away
• General Moseley Baker — steps away