Historical Marker
John Swanson Yarbrough
Tilden, McMullen County · Texas
Erected 2001
At eighty-eight John Swanson Yarbrough was shot to death in 1862 in an argument with a horse trader, according to the Choke Canyon archaeology report. About 1845 he had married Frances Coker Moore Tope, a widow thirty-six years his junior, and their daughter Amanda was born in Crockett in 1846. Frances ran the farm, worked as a midwife and nurse, and died in 1868. When archaeologists opened the Yarbrough Bend cemetery on September 20, 1982, they found six graves, not the eleven stones once reported, including his and Frances's.
What the plaque says
John Swanson Yarbrough (Dec. 25, 1774 - Oct. 20, 1862) A native of North Carolina, John Swanson Yarbrough came to Texas in 1832 and settled in what is now Houston County in east Texas. A veteran of the Texas War for Independence, Yarbrough participated in the 1835 Siege of Bexar and in the decisive Battle of San Jacinto. He moved from Houston County about 1850 and led a group of settlers to the Frio River in 1858 to establish the Yarbrough Bend settlement in what became McMullen County. Yarbrough's grave was relocated to this site from the Yarbrough Bend Cemetery in 1982 as part of the construction of Choke Canyon Reservoir. Recorded - 2001
Where it stands
28.45302, -98.54253 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Choke Canyon State Park — 12 miA reservoir state park on the Frio River in two units, built after a 1982 dam, with birds, alligators and fishing on land people have crossed for more than 10,000 years.
More markers nearby
- Louisa Renshaw Covey — steps away
- Old McMullen College — 0.6 mi
- Boot Hill Cemetery — 0.7 mi
- Moses William Hindes — 0.7 mi