Josepha Rodriguez

The plaque tells the trial; the record around it says more about the county that hanged her. Juan Silvera, tried beside Chipita Rodriguez, may have been her son. Sheriff Means held her at his home in Meansville, where two attempts by lynch mobs were turned back, and after the hanging she was buried in an unmarked grave. Historian Keith Guthrie wrote that the hanging showed the prejudice many White residents held against Mexicans and Mexican Americans. State senator Carlos Truan of Corpus Christi asked the legislature for her 1985 absolution, which Governor Mark White signed on June 13.

What the plaque says

Josepha Rodriguez Josepha Rodríguez, known as "Chipita," was hanged in 1863 for the murder of John Savage. She remained the last woman legally executed in the state of Texas until 1998. Little is known of Rodríguez' life, though it is believed that she was the daughter of Pedro Rodríguez; they moved to San Patricio de Hibernia when Chipita was young. Chipita earned money by hosting travelers on the Cotton Road, a section of the Camino Real which ran through Texas and passed over the Aransas River near her house. In August 1863, John Savage, a horse trader, roomed at the Rodríguez homestead. Soon afterwards, he was found dead in the Aransas River. Sheriff William B. Means arrested Rodríguez, believeing she murdered savage for $600 in gold which he was carrying; Means also arrested Juan Silvera as an accomplice. A grand jury indicted the two, and although the missing gold was recovered prior to the trial, Rodríguez was found guilt of Murder. The jury recommended leniency, because of the circumstanital evidence, but Judge Benjamin Neal sentenced Rodríguez to hang. She was executed on November 13, 1863. Her age at the time was unknown, though she was likely at least sixty years old. The trial's fairness was questioned because of the jurists' problematic personal histories, Rodríguez' weak defense counsel and the lack of a motion for retrial, among other issues. Most of the court records have been lost, and discrepancies exist in trial accounts. Rodríguez' hanging has contributed to local lore and has been the subject of numerous writings and other works. In 1985, the Texas Legislature absolved Josepha "Chipita" Rodríguez of murder in a resolution signed by the governor. (2008)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lipantitlán State Historic Site — 2.9 mi
  Five undeveloped acres on the Nueces named for the Lipan Apaches who camped here, where Mexico built an earth-and-rail fort that Texans took early in the Revolution.
• Lake Corpus Christi State Park — 9.8 mi
  A lake park in the South Texas brush country above Mathis, on a reservoir of the Nueces, with a Civilian Conservation Corps refectory and more than 200 bird species.
• Texas State Aquarium — 25 mi
  A nonprofit aquarium on the tip of Corpus Christi Beach built around the Gulf and the Caribbean, with the largest coastal wildlife rescue center in Texas behind the exhibits.
• Art Museum of South Texas — 25 mi
  Philip Johnson's 1972 museum on the Corpus Christi bayfront, joined in 2006 by Ricardo Legorreta's Miller Wing, holding more than 2,000 works mostly from Texas and the Americas.

More markers nearby

• Courthouses of San Patricio County — steps away
• Battle of San Patricio — steps away
• San Patricio de Hibernia — steps away
• San Patricio County — steps away