Potter's Point

Robert Potter and Harriet A. Moore Page were married by bond in September 1836, a marriage the Handbook of Texas calls of dubious legality. Potter's will, made in Austin less than a month before his death, left the homestead land to Sophia Mayfield and named Harriet as Mrs. Harriet A. Page. She married Charles Ames in 1842 and stayed on. In Lewis v. Ames the Texas Supreme Court ruled in 1875 that she was not Potter's legal wife, and she lost the property. She died in Louisiana in 1902. A monument to her stands on the bluff.

What the plaque says

Potter's Point Site of one of most famous events in Texas. Robert Potter-- a signer, Texas Declaration of Independence, a chief author of Republic's Constitution, first Secretary of Navy, Republic of Texas-- settled 1837 on Caddo Lake. A former U. S. Congressman, he won election 1840 to Texas Senate. After Senate adjourned in 1842 he tried to arrest his political foe, William P. Rose. On night of March 1, 1842, Rose led armed men to Potter's home. At dawn Senator Potter jumped into the lake to swim for help, but was shot to death. He is buried in State Cemetery, Austin. (1969)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Caddo Lake State Park — 9.5 mi
  A Civilian Conservation Corps park on the Texas shore of Caddo Lake, where the Caddo told of a lake made by wind-driven water and visitors now paddle Big Cypress Bayou past moss-hung bald cypress.
• Caddo Lake National Wildlife Refuge — 10.0 mi
  Wetlands and woods on part of a former ammunition plant, now a refuge for wood ducks, prothonotary warblers and alligator snapping turtles, with four easy trails and a free visitor center on a Ramsar lake.
• Excelsior House Hotel — 16 mi
  A brick-and-timber hotel at 211 West Austin that began as a river captain's boarding house in 1858 and was revived by a garden club in 1959, and still takes guests with rosewood furniture.
• Jefferson Historical Museum — 16 mi
  A four-floor museum in Jefferson's 1888-90 federal post office and courthouse, with rooms for African-American history, Jewish heritage, the Caddo and Diamond Bessie, bought by the historical society in 1965 for $8,100.

More markers nearby

• Old Town of Port Caddo — 9.5 mi
• Longhorn Army Ammunition Plant — 9.9 mi
• Hometown of Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson — 10 mi
• Taylor Cemetery — 11 mi