Robert M. Coleman

Robert M. Coleman (1793 - July 1, 1837) was an American Texan politician and soldier, aide-de-camp to Sam Houston; said to be his sober antithesis and the true hero of the republic. Signer of the Texas Declaration, Colonel, and a transitional founder of the Republic of Texas into the United States as a constituent state. His staid stance opposing the strategies of Sam Houston regarding defense of the Alamo, and troup placements on up through the Battle of San Jacinto caused a rift with Houston and a posturing treatise, lending suspicion to the untimely death of Coleman by drowning.

He was appointed one of the first Texas Rangers, whose outpost Coleman's Fort was later named Fort Colorado. The State Historic site marker now sits within Austin, Texas.

On February 1, 1858 he became the posthumous namesake of Coleman county, Texas and thus apparently also Coleman City, Coleman Lake, and eventually many other features, places, businesses, and identifiers in Coleman county, Texas.

Earlier writers include Noah Smithwick, a contemporary frontiersman, stationed at Coleman's Fort, having an awareness of Coleman in Smithwick's book 'Recollections of old Texas Days'.

The late Sherrianne Coleman Nicol, a possible relative or descendant, has written a detailed biography found in narrative-script form as of April 27, 2016 at Ancestry dot comwhich suggests that Robert M. Coleman may have ancestral heritage from the often cited proposed Mobjack Coleman lineage of colonial Virginia. Her article includes a substantial bibliography.

It is implied that his family's association with Sam Houston may have begun back in that Appalachian Virginia near Rockbridge Timber Plantation from where the Sam Houston family migrated, it being adjacent to a Coleman Mountain and Coleman Falls in southwest Amherst county and Nelson counties where some of the Mobjack Coleman lineage settled, both surnames typically attributed to Ireland.

Era

The Texas Revolution

Detail from Houston at the Battle of San Jacinto by Henry Arthur McArdle

Surrender of Santa Anna by William Henry Huddle shows the Mexican general Santa Anna surrendering to a wounded Sam Houston. It hangs in the Texas State Capitol.

Many events followed a similar timeline to that of Sam Houston

It has yet to be determined if any images exist with Sam Houston that might include the person of his aide-de-camp Robert M. Coleman.

Participant in the Republic of Texas

Coleman is not listed in the Old Three Hundred of the Stephen F. Austin contract with Spain, yet some of Robert's land references are noted within the Austin Colony. Coleman appears to have arrived in Texas as a part of the Robertson Empresario recruitment.

Quick view of the transitional areas.

Elected Alcalde (Mayor) in 1834. He was resident of Mina at the time he signed the Texas Declaration of Independence

Houston and his siding contingent denied the allegations of drunkenness and disregard for the safety of Texas troops. The distributed copies of Coleman's pamphlet are apparently rare to find in surviving form, and may have been burned or suppressed after his death.

Protector and defender against Apache and Comanche raids. The family took refuge in Coleman's Fort later known as Fort Colorado, near Austin, Texas. It is said that the Texas Rangers also made intrusions against certain tribes they considered detrimental to the Spanish and Mexican settlements.

Suspicions of foul play in statement of drowning according to Nicol.

A 1936 Memorial stone does not rule out one surviving child Thomas Coleman, and or apparent heirs per Nicol.

Memorial Stone

The State of Texas in 1936 issued a memorial stone which reads:

See also

• Coleman County, Texas
• Texas Declaration of Independence
• Springs of Travis County, Texas
• Battle of Concepción
• Constitution of the Republic of Texas
• Old Three Hundred land transfers
• Texas Revolution
• Texas Republic
• Texas Declaration
• Flags of Texas History
• Timeline of the Republic
• Spain land grants and caretakers