Local History
Texas Mier Expedition Historical Markers: The Black Bean Lottery
In 1842 a Texan invasion of Mexico ended with 17 men drawing black beans out of a pot. Six real Texas historical markers still trace the route, from a stone on US 83 outside Roma to the mass grave at Monument Hill in La Grange.
Photo: Lance Asper / Unsplash. Texas.
Drive US 83 west out of Roma and you'll pass a stone marker most drivers never slow down for. It sits about a mile outside town, and it records the night a body of Texans camped there in December 1842. Three months later, seventeen of those men were dead. RoadHistorical is a Texas historical preservation platform that surfaces markers like this one as you drive past them. This article traces the Mier Expedition across six real Texas markers, from the Rio Grande to a mass grave above the Colorado River.
The Marker Where It Started: Roma, Starr County
The Mier Expedition marker stands on US 83 about a mile west of Roma. The inscription is short and blunt. A body of Texans intent on invading Mexico camped here on December 21, 1842. Mexican troops took them prisoner at Salado. There the men drew beans, white for life in prison, black for death. Santa Anna ordered seventeen of them shot on March 25, 1843.
That's the whole story compressed into four sentences. The fuller version: the men crossed the Rio Grande and fought a two-day battle at Ciudad Mier on December 26 and 27, 1842. They lost. The survivors were marched south as prisoners.
Santa Anna first ordered every prisoner executed. Diplomatic pressure from the United States and Great Britain moved him to a compromise. One in ten would die. At the Hacienda del Salado on March 25, 1843, guards put 159 white beans and 17 black beans in a pot. The Texans drew blindfolded.
Find it in RoadHistorical before your visit. The marker has no street address, so navigate to the coordinates: Roma, Starr County, TX.
The Mass Grave Above the Colorado River
Monument Hill Tomb sits at 414 State Loop 92, La Grange, TX. This is where the story ends for the men who drew black.
In September 1848, Texans reburied their dead here in a sandstone vault. Two groups share it. The men killed in the 1842 Dawson Massacre, and the men killed in the 1843 Black Bean Death Lottery. The marker is honest about what happened next. The Kreische family, who owned the land, did their best to care for the grave. It still suffered from lack of formal oversight.
The state authorized acquisition of .36 acres in 1905. The Daughters of the Republic of Texas raised money for a new tomb cover in 1933. During the 1936 Texas Centennial, workers erected a 48-foot shellstone shaft with an Art Deco mural to mark the mass grave more prominently. Local citizens bought 3.54 acres and donated it to the state for parkland in 1957.
Stopping here is preservation work. The tomb exists because people kept showing up for it across a century.
Find it in RoadHistorical before your visit.
Two Men Who Drew White Beans
Near Henderson in Rusk County, a marker records Richard Brown, born November 16, 1808, died August 24, 1893. He joined the 1842 Mier Expedition to punish Mexican raids into Texas. Captured in Mexico, he escaped the firing squad by drawing a white bean. Then he spent two years chained in prison.
Brown came home and lived an ordinary life. The son of a Philadelphia doctor, he worked as a teacher, a surveyor, and a farmer. He helped found Pine Grove Church and Sharon Masonic Lodge. He married Nancy Jane Cook in 1849 and they had twelve children. Navigate to Henderson, Rusk County, TX.
George Lord has a marker near Westhoff in DeWitt County, and his run of luck is hard to believe. Born in Essex County, England in 1816, he came to Texas by way of Canada and New Orleans. He fought at the Battle of Salado Creek in 1842 alongside John C. "Jack" Hays and William "Bigfoot" Wallace. Then he followed Colonel William Fisher into Mexico.
Lord wasn't selected for execution. He survived Perote Prison, returned to Texas, and fought in the Mexican War as a Ranger. In 1849 he rode to California with Jack Hays for the Gold Rush, marrying Catherine "Kate" Myers in Eagle Pass along the way. They spent three years mining. Kate sold pies to other miners while her husband collected gold dust. They came back to Texas with $7,000 in gold, started a Longhorn ranch in DeWitt County, and raised eleven children. Lord died in his garden in 1895.
Find him in RoadHistorical before your visit. The marker sits at Westhoff, DeWitt County, TX.
A County Seat Named for a Black Bean
Drive into Eastland and you're in a town named for a man the lottery killed. The Eastland marker explains it directly. The county seat takes its name from William M. Eastland, a Texas War for Independence veteran who joined the Mier Expedition and was executed in the Black Bean lottery at Rancho Salado.
The rest of that marker covers oil booms and Old Rip the horned toad. Most visitors stop for those. The first line is the one worth reading twice. Find it at Eastland, Eastland County, TX.
The strangest survival story is at Round Top. The Round Top Community marker lists the town's notable early residents, and one of them is John C.C. Hill, described as the boy captive of the Mier Expedition who was adopted by General Santa Anna. A Texas teenager taken prisoner in a failed invasion ended up raised by the man who ordered the executions.
Find it in RoadHistorical before your visit. Navigate to Round Top, Fayette County, TX.
How RoadHistorical Finds These Markers
Four of these six markers have no street address. They sit on a highway shoulder or a courthouse lawn, and you'd drive past every one without knowing. Discovery Mode fixes that. Turn it on and the app notifies you as you approach a marker. The Roma stone hits your screen before it hits your windshield.
The AI Tour Guide answers what the plaque can't fit. The Roma marker gives you four sentences. Ask why Santa Anna settled on one in ten. Ask who William Eastland was before 1842. You get the context the stonecutter had no room for. Offline mode keeps all of it working in Starr County and DeWitt County, where cell coverage gives out fast.
Start Discovering Texas History Today
RoadHistorical is free to download on iPhone and Android. Download it here and turn on Discovery Mode before your next drive. Android users can download RoadHistorical from Google Play.
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