The Nancy Lea Bell

Nancy Lea was a Baptist leader before she was Sam Houston's mother-in-law, and she first opposed the marriage as too old, too divorced and too fond of drink. The Handbook of Texas says that in 1823 she was the only woman delegate at the founding of the Baptist State Convention of Alabama. At Independence she sold about $500 of her silverware and gave the money to the church for a bell, cast in 1856. In 1860 she gave $1,000 for Bibles for the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board.

What the plaque says

The Nancy Lea Bell Given to Independence Baptist Church in 1856 by Mrs. Nancy Moffette Lea, in thanks for conversion of her son-in-law, Sam Houston, first president of the Republic of Texas. Cast in copper and tin, for soft tone, by Meneely Foundry, New York. Broken in fall from belfry, 1969. (1970)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 0.4 mi
  A crossroads north of Brenham that was the richest town in Texas when it won Baylor University in 1845, refused the railroad, and lost the college to Waco and Belton in 1886.
• Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site — 11 mi
  The townsite on the Brazos where delegates met in a cold, unfinished hall in March 1836 to declare Texas independent, with Independence Hall rebuilt and Anson Jones's Barrington farm worked as in 1850.
• Star of the Republic Museum — 12 mi
  A star-shaped museum of the Republic of Texas years, 1836 to 1846, built at Washington-on-the-Brazos after a Brenham campaign and opened on March 1, 1970.
• Navasota — 16 mi
  A railroad and cotton town where the La Bahia Road crossed the Navasota River, scarred by an 1865 explosion and yellow fever, and the home ground of the songster Mance Lipscomb.

More markers nearby

• Margaret M. Lea Houston — steps away
• Old Baptist Church — steps away
• Site of Independence School — steps away
• Site of Mustering of a Unit of Hood's Texas Brigade, C.S.A. — steps away