Juan Davis Bradburn

Bradburn's Texas Revolution ended on foot. Rejoining the army in 1835, he was left commanding Copano, and after San Jacinto he stayed to intercept Mexican supply ships. Ordered to Refugio in May 1836, he found his force reduced to five men; two deserted and the rest fell ill, so he set out alone for Mexico, reaching Matamoros ill on June 13. Texas writers of his day judged him harshly, and his biographer calls him among the most maligned men of his time. He was reportedly buried on his ranch near Mission, but no record locates the grave.

What the plaque says

Juan Davis Bradburn John Davis Bradburn (1787-1842) was born in Virginia and reared in Kentucky. He entered Mexico in 1817 with Francisco Mina's army to help upset Spanish colonial forces in the War of Independence. He became a naturalized Mexican citizen and in 1821 married into an aristocratic family. Bradburn hired Henry Austin to operate a steamboat on the Rio Grande in 1828. Best known as the Mexican commander at the Anahuac disturbances in 1830-32, he was promoted to general in 1832, and died in 1842. The exact location of his grave is unknown; he reportedly is buried on the hill nearby. (1996)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• La Lomita Chapel — steps away
  A small sandstone chapel on the Rio Grande levee, built by Oblate missionaries in 1865 and rebuilt at this site in 1899, the landmark that gave the city of Mission its name.
• Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park — 3.8 mi
  A 587-acre stand of Rio Grande woodland near Mission, once part of a Spanish porción, given to the state by the Bentsen family in 1944 and now headquarters of the World Birding Center.
• Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge — 13 mi
  About 2,000 acres of river forest on the Rio Grande's north bank, the surviving part of Benigno Leal's 1834 land grant, kept as a refuge since 1943 where two bird migration routes meet.
• Museum of South Texas History — 15 mi
  Edinburg's regional museum, begun in 1967 in the 1910 Hidalgo County jail and now telling the Rio Grande's story from fossils and native peoples through steamboats to the 20th century.

More markers nearby

• Penitas — 3.6 mi
• Leo Najo — 4.3 mi
• Texas Citrus Fiesta — 4.4 mi
• Hidalgo-Reynosa Bridges — 5.6 mi