Samuel Wallace Sholars, M.D.

The Orange Rifles that Dr. Sholars helped organize began in 1876, under the Texas Militia Bill of 1870, partly to back local law enforcement in a violent period. The Orange Leader ties the company to riots and the ambush killing of a deputy named Sam Deputy, and says Major Norsworthy and Dr. S. W. Sholars commanded it early. By July 1898 it had 100 men and three officers and went to San Antonio with the Fourth Texas Regiment, which was not needed in Manila. The armory on Meeks Drive still stands as a city service center.

What the plaque says

Samuel Wallace Sholars, M.D. (Oct. 15, 1847 - May 13, 1926) A native of Talladega, Alabama, Samuel Sholars moved with his parents to Jasper County in 1858. A Confederate army veteran, Dr. Sholars received his medical degree in 1872. He practiced medicine in Orange, founded Sholars Drugstore, served as alderman, school board member, and president of the Southeast Texas Medical Society. He helped organize the Orange Rifles of the Texas Volunteer Guards. His daughter and three sons were also civic leaders. Recorded - 1979

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Stark Museum of Art — 0.6 mi
  A white-marble museum in Orange built by the Stark Foundation and opened in 1978, holding Western art, American Indian art, Audubon's Birds of America and Steuben glass, free to enter.
• Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center — 1.3 mi
  More than 250 acres on Adams Bayou, begun by H. J. Lutcher Stark in 1937, with garden rooms, a cypress-tupelo swamp, a heronry blind and free pontoon tours in season.
• Museum of the Gulf Coast — 19 mi
  Port Arthur's regional museum in a former bank building: fossils, Native Americans, the petroleum story, a 125-foot history mural and Halls of Fame for musicians, athletes and artists.
• Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum — 21 mi
  A re-created oil boomtown on the Lamar University campus, with a derrick, period shops, a 1941 granite monument and an optional re-enactment of the January 1901 Lucas gusher.

More markers nearby

• Dr. Samuel M. Brown — steps away
• John Thomas Stark — steps away
• Evergreen Cemetery — steps away
• Captain George M. Levingston — steps away