Sons of the Republic of Texas - George B. Erath Chapter - Waco, Texas

06/21/2026

Happy Father’s Day from The George B. Erath Chapter of Waco, Texas!

06/07/2026

06/03/2026

On this day in 1836, a mounted ranger company in the service of the Texas revolutionary army captured a Mexican ship. The rangers, under the command of Maj. Isaac Watts Burton, had been dispatched by Gen. Thomas J. Rusk to watch a stretch of the Gulf Coast south of San Antonio Bay. When they heard of a suspicious vessel in Copano Bay, the rangers hid on the shore and sent up distress signals. The ship responded first by hoisting American and Texan signals, which were ignored. Only when the ship raised Mexican signals did the rangers respond. Thus tricked into thinking the supposedly distressed soldiers were Mexican, the captain came ashore and was captured. With him as hostage, sixteen rangers rowed out, boarded the Watchman, and seized its cargo of provisions for the Mexican army. Burton and his men employed this decoying tactic twice more on June 17, when they captured the Mexican ships Comanche and F***y Butler. For these unlikely captures at sea, the mounted rangers were dubbed "Horse Marines."
Pic: Thomas J. Rusk
Text Source: Texas State Historical Association

05/23/2026

From the members of our George B. Erath Chapter, we pause to remember our fallen heroes, men and women whose legacies are etched into the pages of history and whose sacrifices secured the freedoms we cherish today.

05/20/2026

The George B. Erath Chapter of Waco, Texas, is proud to have Joe Scaramucci as our newest member! Congratulations and welcome, brother.

05/19/2026

On his day in 1836, the Comanche attacked Fort Parker in modern-day Groesbeck, Texas. They killed Elder John Parker, his two sons, Benjamin and Silas, and family allies Samuel and Robert Frost. They also abducted several inhabitants, including Rachael Parker Plummer and Cynthia Ann Parker.

05/14/2026

On this day in 1836, in the aftermath of the decisive Texan victory at San Jacinto, ad interim president David G. Burnet and Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna signed two treaties at the town of Velasco. The public treaty was to be published immediately, and the secret agreement was to be carried into ex*****on when the public treaty had been fulfilled. The public treaty, with ten articles, provided that hostilities would cease, that Santa Anna would not again take up arms against Texas, that the Mexican forces would withdraw beyond the Rio Grande, that property confiscated by Mexicans would be restored, that prisoners would be exchanged on an equal basis, that Santa Anna would be sent to Mexico as soon as possible, and that the Texas army would not approach closer than five leagues to the retreating Mexicans. In the secret agreement, in six articles, the Texas government promised the immediate liberation of Santa Anna on condition that he use his influence to secure from Mexico acknowledgment of Texas independence; Santa Anna promised not to take up arms against Texas, to give orders for withdrawal from Texas of Mexican troops, to have the Mexican cabinet receive a Texas mission favorably, and to work for a treaty of commerce and limits specifying that the Texas boundary not lie south of the Rio Grande.
Source: Texas State Historical Association

05/10/2026

04/25/2026

On this day in 1838, the United States and the Republic of Texas signed the Convention of Limits, which recognized Texas claims to disputed territory in Red River County (the present Bowie, Red River, Franklin, Titus, Morris, and Cass counties). The agreement also set the west bank of the Sabine River as the eastern boundary of Texas. However, tension continued between the two countries regarding Indian depredations along the republic's northern border. U.S. chargé d'affaires Alcée La Branche protested Texas army crossings of the border in pursuit of Indians. In the twentieth century the exact location of the Texas-Louisiana border became the subject of a dispute between the two states.
Source: Texas State Historical Association