Major Reuben R. Brown

The Matamoros story is only part of Brown's record. Later he built a plantation near the mouth of the Brazos worked by twenty-four enslaved people, and the 1850 count was twenty-one. When the Civil War came he was elected lieutenant colonel of the Thirteenth Texas Infantry in October 1861 and served on the coast. He led an independent cavalry battalion in 1862, became colonel of the Thirty-fifth Texas Cavalry in November 1863 and fought in the Red River Campaign. He died at Velasco and is buried at Peach Point.

What the plaque says

Major Reuben R. Brown (February 3, 1808 - March 2, 1894) In Texas War for Independence, joined Matamoros Expedition of January 1836. In detachment that captured horses of Gen. Urrea of Mexican army. Brown was made captive in a counterattack, and spent 11 months in prison in Mexico, but finally escaped. In his old age, he lived at "Sur Mer", home of his daughter Mrs. James Perry Bryan, a great-granddaughter by marriage of Moses Austin, whose courage had led to colonization of Texas. Recorded - 1970

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Levi Jordan Plantation State Historic Site — 11 mi
  A sugar and cotton plantation on the San Bernard River whose enslaved builders and their descendants left one of the best-preserved African American archeological sites in Texas.
• Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge — 12 mi
  Coastal prairie, salt marsh and bays between Freeport and Christmas Bay, where an auto tour along Big Slough passes wintering geese, ducks and wading birds in the tens of thousands.
• Varner-Hogg Plantation State Historic Site — 16 mi
  A Brazos sugar plantation built by enslaved people for the Patton family, later leased convict labor and Hogg family oil, now told through Rachel Patton and Sarah Ford.

More markers nearby

• William Joel Bryan — steps away
• Major James Peckham Caldwell — steps away
• Henry William Munson — steps away
• Emily Margaret Brown Austin Bryan Perry — steps away