Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar

Before Texas, Lamar was a Georgia newspaperman and poet. Born near Louisville, Georgia, in 1798, he wrote verse and painted in oils as a boy, served as secretary to Governor George M. Troup and in 1828 founded the Columbus Enquirer. His first wife, Tabitha Jordan, died of tuberculosis in 1830, and in the grief that followed he wrote two of his best-known poems, "At Evening on the Banks of the Chattahoochee" and "Thou Idol of My Soul." His Verse Memorials appeared in 1857, and his enemies called him a better poet than politician.

What the plaque says

Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar President of the Republic of Texas A native of Georgia, Mirabeau B. Lamar came to Texas in 1835 and immediately became involved in the movement for independence from Mexico. Upon the fall of the Alamo and news of the Goliad Massacre, he joined the Texas Army, in the rank of private, as Houston's troops moved eastward toward San Jacinto. In a swiftly moving chain of events, he was made colonel on the eve of the Battle of San Jacinto, and there commanded the cavalry with distinction. Ten days later he was Secretary of War in the ad interim government, and a month later was appointed commander-in-chief of the army. Lamar was elected vice-president in the first national election in 1836. Anti-Sam Houston leaders sponsored him for president in 1837. He won the election and took office in 1838 for a 3-year term. His administration was known for its opposition to annexation, a forceful Indian policy, and the recognition of Texas by Great Britain and France. Lamar is credited with laying the foundation for the first system of public education in Texas. He died in 1859 at his plantation near Richmond, and is buried here in the Morton Cemetery. (1965)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Brazos Bend State Park — 16 mi
  Oak and pecan bottomland, lakes and alligators on the Brazos River 45 miles from downtown Houston, with the museum's George Observatory in the woods.
• The Menil Collection — 26 mi
  John and Dominique de Menil's free museum in Montrose: a grey-sided Renzo Piano building among bungalows, holding antiquities, Surrealism and art of Oceania under natural light.
• Museum of Fine Arts, Houston — 26 mi
  The oldest art museum in Texas, grown from a 1900 schoolroom art league into a campus of Watkin, Mies van der Rohe and later buildings, with Ima Hogg's Bayou Bend up the bayou.
• Rothko Chapel — 26 mi
  An octagonal chapel open to all faiths, built by the de Menils around fourteen dark canvases by Mark Rothko, with Barnett Newman's Broken Obelisk standing in the pool outside.

More markers nearby

• Calvary Episcopal Church — 1.3 mi
• Taylor Ray — 1.4 mi
• Rosenberg Post Office — 1.6 mi
• Fort Bend Telephone Company — 1.6 mi