Sinclair David Gervais

Sinclair Gervais was born in Charleston on February 21, 1779, the son of a delegate to the Continental Congress, and graduated from its college at fifteen. He helped manage his father's plantation, Herrenhausen, in up-country South Carolina, then served as a Mississippi militia officer in the War of 1812, a lieutenant colonel by 1815. In Texas from 1835, he took a league near Mina and became its first judge, but Comanche and Mexican attacks drove settlers out in 1836. Sam Houston nominated him chief justice of Matagorda County on November 7, 1837. His daughter Claudinia married Dr. Levy.

What the plaque says

Sinclair David Gervais A native of South Carolina, Sinclair David Gervais was a soldier in the War of 1812. He and his wife Katherine were the parents of four children. Following her death, Gervais and two of his daughters came to Texas in 1835. He was appointed the first alcalde of the municipality of Mina (Bastrop) by provisional governor Henry Smith. Gervais came to Matagorda in 1837 and was appointed the second chief justice of Matagorda County by President Sam Houston. (1989)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Levi Jordan Plantation State Historic Site — 28 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.

More markers nearby

• Dr. Albert Moses Levy — steps away
• Major George Morse Collinsworth — steps away
• Seth Ingram — steps away
• Ira Ingram — steps away