Tito P. Rivera

Rivera's ransom is recorded in a county biography. Comanches captured him in March 1852 on a pack-train trip for food, and a chief named Govaro-choo-koospy had him read and write letters to General John Baylor and Major Robert Neighbors. A note he slipped into one letter led to his release in December 1855 on payment of a $125 ransom by Neighbors, who took him into his own San Antonio household until Neighbors was killed in 1859. In Corpus Christi Rivera became cashier of the Doddridge and Davis bank, which failed in February 1891.

What the plaque says

Tito P. Rivera Born in Sinaloa, Mexico, Tito P. Rivera (1843-1894) was the eldest son of Julian and Josefa Herrera Rivera. His father was a silver mining engineer, which allowed Rivera to receive a private education. In 1853, Rivera joined a supply train heading to the neighboring state of Durango to gather food for miners. During the trip, though, a Comanche party seized the supplies and took hostages, including Rivera. He quickly became of value to the Comanche for his ability to read and write. He also learned the spoken Comanche language, which he could translate to Spanish. He spent the next two years serving as an intermediary for the Comanche and agents of the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. By 1855, Rivera was able to secure his release after slipping a personal plea for help in one of the Comanche correspondences to a U.S. Agent. Unable to return to Mexico, Rivera settled near San Antonio. In 1861, Rivera enlisted in a unit for the Confederacy. He first served on the Texas frontier, taking military forts from federal control. Later, he joined another unit as a clerk in the trans-Mississippi theater of the Civil War. After a brief stint of cattle driving, Rivera worked in commission houses in Victoria, Port Lavaca and Galveston. There, he made his fortune and married Mary H. "Mollie" Holloway (1854-1902) in 1870. Three years later, the couple moved to Corpus Christi, where Rivera started a print shop and book store. He successfully ran for and served on the city council from 1884 to 1888. As an alderman, he helped oversee the finances and operations of the city's public schools. He also served in civic organizations and in the Episcopal church. Rivera was survived by his wife and five children. (2023)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Mirador de la Flor — 0.7 mi
  Corpus Christi's bayfront memorial to Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, the Tejano singer from this city, killed in 1995 at twenty-three, visited by about thirty thousand people a year.
• Art Museum of South Texas — 0.8 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.
• Texas State Aquarium — 1.0 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.
• USS Lexington Museum on the Bay — 1.2 mi
  An Essex-class carrier of 1943 moored off North Beach, the Blue Ghost that Tokyo Rose kept reporting sunk, and the Navy's training carrier for nearly three decades after.

More markers nearby

• Eli Todd Merriman — steps away
• William DeRyee — steps away
• Matthew Nolan — steps away
• James Downing — steps away