Judge Thomas L. Devine (1820-1890)

The son of Irish emigrants, Devine clerked in New York and Tallahassee before reading law in Mississippi and studying three years at Transylvania University. He married Helen Elder at La Grange in 1844 and was San Antonio's city attorney until 1851. After the war he was arrested in San Antonio and held at Fort Jackson Barracks in New Orleans, where he fell ill with pneumonia, until his parole in January 1866. He resigned from the Supreme Court partly because of his wife's illness, declined to run for governor in 1878 and died in San Antonio in 1890.

What the plaque says

Judge Thomas L. Devine (1820-1890) Born in Nova Scotia. Came to Texas in 1843. Became District Judge, 1851. On the powerful Public Safety Committee of the Texas Secession Convention, 1861. Named with Samuel A. Maverick and Philip N. Luckett to take possession of the federal property in Texas. Backed by Col. Ben McCulloch and 1,200 minute men, forced surrender of 3,000 troops with arms, ammunition, supplies and $30,000 cash. Served throughout the Civil War as one of two Confederate Judges in Texas. Tried cases of persons accused of Union sympathies; dispositions of goods owned by Northern enemy; and maritime disputes arising from the coastal blockade and shipwrecks. In 1864 was made Special Commissioner to settle disputes among foreign merchants handling cotton (South's only medium of trade for vital supplies) across the Mexican boundary. At war's end, left with other Texas leaders hoping to continue fight from Mexico. On his return became only Southerner besides President Jefferson Davis to be twice indicated for treason. Was pardoned in June 1867 by President Andrew Johnson. On Texas Supreme Court and University of Texas Board of Regents. This town named for him in 1882. (1964)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Landmark Inn State Historic Site — 15 mi
  A store and stage stop at the Medina River ford in Henri Castro's Alsatian town, with a mill race under the ground and rooms you can still rent for the night.
• San Antonio Missions National Historical Park — 30 mi
  Four working parish churches on the Mission Trail south of downtown, with the visitor center at Mission San Jose, the Queen of the Missions, and the descendants who still worship there.
• Mission Espada and the Espada Aqueduct — 30 mi
  The southernmost San Antonio mission and the oldest Spanish aqueduct in the United States, still carrying river water over Sixmile Creek to the fields after nearly three centuries.
• Mission San Juan — 30 mi
  The mission near the river bend where the San Antonio got its name in 1691, with an unfinished church foundation and farm fields still watered by an eighteenth-century acequia.

More markers nearby

• First Baptist Church of Devine — steps away
• Spanish Exploration in Medina County — 2.7 mi
• Robert Lee Bobbitt — 6.3 mi
• City Hotel — 13 mi