John W. Smith

Smith was born William John Smith and reversed his names in San Antonio because John William was easier for Spanish speakers to say; townspeople called him El Colorado. He became a Catholic in 1828. During the 1835 siege he used his surveying skill to draw the detailed plat that made the house-to-house attack possible. In the Alamo he was the last messenger William B. Travis sent out, carrying word to the Convention of 1836. Under Houston and Lamar he once held as many as eleven commissions at the same time.

What the plaque says

John W. Smith Great early San Antonio leader, a native of North Carolina. Moved to Illinois, then to Missouri, where he was sheriff of Rawls County in 1824. Came to Texas with Green DeWitt in 1826 and settled at Gonzales. Smith moved to San Antonio in 1828 and was soon in banking-mercantile, brokerage-contracting business. Loyal to Democracy and opposed to dictatorship, he was active in defending Texas against Mexico, 1835-42. He participated in "affair at Gonzales" (Oct. 2, 1835), "storming of Bexar" (Dec. 1835), siege of the Alamo (March 1836), and the Battle of the Salado (Oct. 1842). Divorced on Jan. 15, 1831, in Missouri from Harriet Stone, he married Maria Curbelo, a descendant of the Canary Islanders who came to San Antonio in 1731. Attorney for many pioneer Texans, he was dominant political figure in Bexar County during 1836-45 era. Elected first county clerk on May 1, 1837, and first Mayor of San Antonio Sept. 18, 1837, by Jan. 1838 he had been appointed postmaster as well. From 1842 to 1845 he served he republic as senator from Bexar. During regular session of the 9th Congress, he died at Washington-on-the-Brazos. His grave is located in a State Park there. This marker stands at the site of his early home in La Villita De San Fernando. (1973)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• San Antonio River Walk — steps away
  A Depression-era park one level below downtown, built because San Antonio refused to pave its river after the 1921 flood, and designed by an architect the project later fired.
• La Villita Historic Arts Village — steps away
  The little village across the river from the presidio, where Cos surrendered San Antonio in 1835, rebuilt by Depression-era youth crews as a working crafts village.
• The Alamo — 0.4 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.
• San Fernando Cathedral — 0.4 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.

More markers nearby

• St. Philip's College (original site) — steps away
• El Quartel (El Cuartel) — steps away
• The Pajalache Acequia (Ditch) — steps away
• Don Jose Miguel de Arciniega — steps away