Thomas Jefferson Smith

Smith came to Texas in 1835 with the Georgia Battalion and fought at the siege of Bexar. As a private in Uriah I. Bullock's company, in William Ward's contingent of Fannin's command, he fought at Refugio, where a bullet struck his hand. Captured near Victoria, he was one of sixteen men the Mexicans held there on March 23, 1836, to build a boat, which spared him from the Goliad Massacre; a bayonet wounded him while a prisoner. Rusk discharged him on June 15. In 1883 he wrote a detailed account of his experiences in the Revolution.

What the plaque says

Thomas Jefferson Smith Born in Virginia 1808, reared in Georgia. Fought in Texas War for Independence, 1836, under James W. Fannin at Refugio Mission. Captured at Goliad, was spared to repair guns for Mexican Army. Escaped during Battle of San Jacinto. Settled in Richmond after the war; owned blacksmith shop, hotel, livery stable. Sheriff of Fort Bend County 1853-1857. Married twice and father of eight; he died Feb. 16, 1890. (1967)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Brazos Bend State Park — 17 mi
  Oak and pecan bottomland, lakes and alligators on the Brazos River 45 miles from downtown Houston, with the museum's George Observatory in the woods.
• The Menil Collection — 24 mi
  John and Dominique de Menil's free museum in Montrose: a grey-sided Renzo Piano building among bungalows, holding antiquities, Surrealism and art of Oceania under natural light.
• Museum of Fine Arts, Houston — 24 mi
  The oldest art museum in Texas, grown from a 1900 schoolroom art league into a campus of Watkin, Mies van der Rohe and later buildings, with Ima Hogg's Bayou Bend up the bayou.
• Rothko Chapel — 24 mi
  An octagonal chapel open to all faiths, built by the de Menils around fourteen dark canvases by Mark Rothko, with Barnett Newman's Broken Obelisk standing in the pool outside.

More markers nearby

• Walter Moses Burton — steps away
• John McNabb — steps away
• Site of the Home of Randal Jones — steps away
• Morton Cemetery — steps away