Saving history: 100-year-old marker rededicated
A host of local dignitaries turned out earlier this month to rededicate a marker commemorating the bloody battle of Brushy Creek almost 200 years ago that claimed more than 30 lives on Taylor’s outskirts.
Most of the dead included members of a Comanche raiding party, but also a handful of Texas Rangers and militia.
Williamson County Sheriff Matthew Lindemann said it was meaningful to see the community show up for the ceremony Nov. 8 — 186 years after the hostilities — to honor fallen Texas Rangers and to once again dedicate a marker erected a century ago.
The pink granite marker reads, “In grateful memory to those who gave their lives in the Battle of Brushy Creek, 1839. Erected by friends and students of Taylor public schools.”
“Twenty-one of my 41 years in law enforcement was serving as a Texas Ranger. Rangers lost their lives in this battle and they deserve somebody to come out and respect them,” Lindemann said.
The rededication of the once-lost marker commemorated not just the battle, but the efforts of teacher Martha Emmons and her Taylor High School students who raised the money to erect the pinkl granite monument Nov. 5, 1925.
An article that year in the Taylor Daily Press reports students were asked to each donate a dime to fund the marker.
In late August, Giddings High School math teacher Don Goerner — a history buff — and Taylor Conservation and Heritage Society Vice President Brandt Rydell traipsed through a private, wooded lot about 100 yards off Texas 95 1.4 miles south of the city and rediscovered the forgotten marker.
It was still standing, overgrown and surrounded by brush, but undamaged.
Goerner worked with the conservation society to plan the rededication ceremony.
The Texas State Historical Association lists Emmons as a “pioneer folklorist and Texas cultural icon.” During the ceremony, Rydell and Goerner both spoke about her escapades as a teacher and as a Taylor resident.
Conservation Society President Frances Sorrow said the marker demonstrates Taylor students 100 years ago had the same commitment, initiative and enthusiasm that current pupils possess.
Don Doss of the Williamson County Historical Commission said the 1925 marker might be one of the earliest historical markers in the county.
Taylor High history teacher Miguel Harvey said he planned on incorporating the battle and the marker into his U.S. history lessons to show how students can help commemorate events in the community.
“We are lucky in Texas to have little pieces of history everywhere we turn. And sometimes, like this, they get lost in time,” Harvey said. “And so being able to rediscover something like this... I think it really can teach an important lesson about what it means to live on this land and what it means to be from Taylor and from Central Texas.”
Texas Ranger Reid Rackley and Goerner recounted for the audience the events leading up to the conflict in February 1839.
“At least four Rangers died during this battle, and although it was a long time ago it was at the beginning stages of what we now enjoy in Texas. They gave their lives to the people of Texas and it’s important for us to remember these young men,” said Rackley, who serves in Company F based in Williamson County.
This relaxing riverbank was not always so peaceful. It is believed to have been the scene of a fierce battle 186 years ago between Texas Rangers and Comanche raiders, known as the Battle of Brushy Creek. Photo by Edie Zuvanich
