Site of Home (1850 to 1870) of Samuel Augustus Maverick

Maverick came to Texas as a political exile of sorts. A Yale graduate of 1825 who read law in Virginia, he ran for the South Carolina legislature in 1830, but his opposition to nullification and secession helped defeat him, and he left the state in 1833. Reaching San Antonio in 1835 just before the siege of Bexar, he was put under house arrest by Gen. Martín Perfecto de Cos and kept a diary that gives a vivid record of the siege. Released on December 1, he went to the Texan camp and urged an immediate attack.

What the plaque says

Site of Home (1850 to 1870) of Samuel Augustus Maverick A native of South Carolina; came to San Antonio in 1835; was guide for Ben Milam and other leaders in first attack on San Antonio by Texas Army, Dec. 1835. As Bexar delegate, Maverick signed Texas Declaration of Independence at Washington-on-Brazos, 1836. With Capt. Jack Hays' "Minute Men," he helped make San Antonio safe from Comanche Indian attacks; also joined Hays' expedition which opened California road and claimed Rio Grande as Texas' western boundary. Twice Mayor of San Antonio; he was prisoner-of-war in Perote, Mex., for 7 months after Gen. Adrian Woll's capture of San Antonio in 1842. Was elected as Bexar representative to 7th Congress of Republic (1842) while still a prisoner at Perote. Member of committee which accepted surrender of U.S. troops and forts in Texas without bloodshed in Civil War, 1861. Was Chief Justice of Bexar County during War; served in Texas House, Senate afterwards. He married Mary Ann Adams of Tuscaloosa, Ala. They became parents of 9 children. His famous practice of letting his cattle run about unbranded gave English language the word "maverick," meaning an independent person, as well as unbranded animal. Texas' Maverick County and town were named in his honor. (1967)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• The Alamo — steps away
  Mission San Antonio de Valero before it was a fort: a church its builders never finished, a thirteen-day siege in 1836, and the Army gable of 1850-52 that became its emblem.
• San Antonio River Walk — 0.3 mi
  A Depression-era park one level below downtown, built because San Antonio refused to pave its river after the 1921 flood, and designed by an architect the project later fired.
• La Villita Historic Arts Village — 0.4 mi
  The little village across the river from the presidio, where Cos surrendered San Antonio in 1835, rebuilt by Depression-era youth crews as a working crafts village.
• San Fernando Cathedral — 0.5 mi
  The Canary Islanders' parish church on Main Plaza, where Bowie married and Santa Anna raised a red flag, rebuilt in Gothic Revival around the walls of the 1750s church.

More markers nearby

• In Re Ricardo Rodriguez — steps away
• Alamo Cenotaph — steps away
• Adina de Zavala — steps away
• Alamo Low Barracks and Main Gateway — steps away