San Patricio de Hibernia

The 1936 monument records the founding date; the town itself began as mud and pickets. Settlers reached the Nueces by November 1830 and chose the spot where the Camino Real from Goliad to Laredo and the Atascosito Road from Louisiana crossed the river. With little timber for log cabins, they stood small trunks upright in trenches, thatched the roofs and packed the gaps with mud. Surveyor William O'Docharty laid out the townsite. When the municipality was created in 1834, O'Docharty became alcalde, and the aldermen included Francisco De Leon and Francisco Leal beside the Irish names.

What the plaque says

San Patricio de Hibernia Founded in 1830 by John McMullen and James McGloin as the seat of their Irish colony under an empresario contract dated August 17, 1828 which was fulfilled by the empresarios 1830-1835. Named in honor of Saint Patrick the Patron Saint of Ireland. As the frontier outpost of Texas when the revolution began San Patricio 1835-1845 suffered all the miseries of that conflict with no compensating returns. At and near San Patricio, on February 27, 1836 General Jose Urrea's division of Santa Anna's army surprised and overwhelmed Johnson's Texan party of 35 men, 9 or 10 Texans were killed, 6 or 7 escaped and 20 were sent to Matamoros as prisoners. After San Jacinto the town was destroyed and its inhabitants driven away. In memory of Rev. Henry Doyle, Rev. T.J. Molloy, Wm. O'Docharty, Geo. O'Docharty, Walter Henry, Patrick Henry, John Hart, Michael Haley, Mark Killalea, Wm. Hefferman, Oceola Archer, Lewis Ayers, Catherine Hoye, Owen Gaffney, John Ross, Wm. Pugh early settlers of San Patricio. John McMullen delegate to the Consultation, 1835. John Turner, John White Bower, signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence. John McGloin, John Fadden, Dennis McGowan, Andrew M. O'Boyle, Geo. Pettuck, Mathew Byrne, Patrick Nevin, Edward Garner, Edward Ryan, Dennis Mahoney, Miles Andross, W.M. Quinn soldiers in Texas Revolution. San Patricio has contributed the following distinguished citizens Patrick O'Docharty, Susanna O'Docharty, Thomas O'Callaghan, Patrick McGloin, Chris Sullivan, Rose K. Mahoney, John Ryan, Geo. McCowan, Catherine Ryan, James McKeown, Patrick McMurray, Thomas Magowan, Wm. P. Allen, Mary Ann Collins, Hubert Timon, David Odem, John Timon, Andrew Jackson Brown, John Donahue, Mary E. McCloin Murphy, Robert Dougherty, Alexander McCloin, Margaret Hart McFall, Patrick Brennan, Margaret Baldeschwiler, John Corrigan, Margaret Q. James, Andrew Gerhardt, Mathew Kivlin, James Grover, Robert Weir, Eliza A. Sullivan, J. Chrys Dougherty, Steve J. Lewis, Joe E. Sullivan, Hugh Touhy, John Dee. Erected by the State of Texas 1936

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lipantitlán State Historic Site — 2.9 mi
  Five undeveloped acres on the Nueces named for the Lipan Apaches who camped here, where Mexico built an earth-and-rail fort that Texans took early in the Revolution.
• Lake Corpus Christi State Park — 9.8 mi
  A lake park in the South Texas brush country above Mathis, on a reservoir of the Nueces, with a Civilian Conservation Corps refectory and more than 200 bird species.
• Texas State Aquarium — 25 mi
  A nonprofit aquarium on the tip of Corpus Christi Beach built around the Gulf and the Caribbean, with the largest coastal wildlife rescue center in Texas behind the exhibits.
• Art Museum of South Texas — 25 mi
  Philip Johnson's 1972 museum on the Corpus Christi bayfront, joined in 2006 by Ricardo Legorreta's Miller Wing, holding more than 2,000 works mostly from Texas and the Americas.

More markers nearby

• Josepha Rodriguez — steps away
• San Patricio County — steps away
• Courthouses of San Patricio County — steps away
• Battle of San Patricio — steps away