Name: Fort Davis, Texas
Address: Fort Davis, TX

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Fort Davis owes its name to a man who would later become a figure of immense controversy: Jefferson Davis. Back in 1854, he was the Secretary of War, a powerful position overseeing the United States military. When the fort was established to protect the vital San Antonio-El Paso Road and the settlers traveling it, it was named in his honor. It’s a simple, direct naming, reflecting the fort's purpose: strength, security, and the reach of the U.S. government into this remote corner of Texas. Of course, the name carries a certain irony now. Davis's legacy is inextricably linked to the Confederacy, a cause that ultimately sought to dismantle the very union he once served. Yet, the name remains, a historical marker in a place that has seen its share of change. It's a reminder that history is complex, filled with figures who embody both progress and profound flaws. Fort Davis stands as a testament to that complexity, a place where the past is etched into the very landscape, from the well-preserved buildings of the National Historic Site to the whispers of the Buffalo Soldiers who once rode these hills.

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Fort Davis, nestled high in the Davis Mountains, feels like a world apart from the rest of Texas, and that feeling extends to its history. Long before the fort gave the town its name, Apache people knew this land, their presence woven into the canyons and springs. Later, the fort became a vital point on the San Antonio-El Paso Road, drawing people from different backgrounds. Soldiers, merchants, and settlers arrived, many with roots in the eastern United States, but also a significant Tejano influence from further south. The echoes of that Tejano heritage are subtle now, but they linger. You might hear it in the older family names, or see it in the adobe construction techniques adapted to the local stone. While English is the language of commerce and everyday life, the spirit of the borderland hasn't entirely faded. The architecture around the historic fort, and even parts of the town itself, reflect a blend of Anglo military practicality and the more organic forms of the Southwest. Even now, as the sun sets over the mountains, casting long shadows across the high desert, you can feel the layers of history, a quiet reminder that this peaceful isolation was built on a foundation of diverse cultures.

Fort Davis, TX RoadyGoat

The science at McDonald Observatory works by utilizing a range of telescopes to gather light and data from the cosmos. The Hobby-Eberly Telescope, for instance, is one of the largest in the world, optimized for spectroscopy, which helps scientists decode the nature of stars and galaxies by analyzing the light they emit.

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Flipper, Henry Ossian

1877

Henry Ossian Flipper, engineer, the first Black graduate of West Point, the eldest of five sons of Festus and Isabella Flipper, was born a slave at Thomasville, Georgia, on March 21, 1856. He attended school at the American Missionary Association, and in 1873, as a freshman at Atlanta University, he was appointed to the United States Military Academy. Although Flipper was the fifth Black accepted to West Point, he was the first to graduate. At West Point he was often ostracized and had little social interaction with White cadets beyond official activities. He graduated fiftieth in a class of seventy-six on June 14, 1877, and accepted a commission as a second lieutenant. Flipper described his successful struggle against ostracism and prejudice in The Colored Cadet at West Point (1878). In January 1878 he was assigned to Company A of the Tenth United States Cavalry . As an officer in the Tenth Cavalry, Flipper served at forts Elliott, Concho, Quitman, and Davis, Texas, and at Fort Sill, Indian Territory. He first reached Texas on his way to Fort Sill, where he supervised the drainage of malarial ponds. Flipper's Ditch is now a national historic landmark. He later constructed a road from Gainesville to Fort Sill after a troop of the Fourth United States Cavalry got drunk and deserted the lieutenant assigned to do the job. Flipper also installed a telegraph line from Fort Elliott to Fort Supply, Indian Territory, scouted on the Llano Estacado , and assisted in the return of Quanah Parker 's band from Palo Duro Canyon to the Fort Sill reservation in the winter of 1878-79. During the Victorio campaign of 1880 he fought in two battles at Eagle Springs, Texas. For his service in the field Flipper was made acting assistant quartermaster, post quartermaster, and acting commissary of subsistence at Fort Davis, Jeff Davis County. The positions placed him in charge of the fort's supplies and physical plant. When Col. William Rufus Shafter became commanding officer of Fort Davis in 1881, he immediately relieved Flipper as quartermaster and planned to relieve him as commissary as soon as he found a replacement. Flipper suspected what he later called a systematic plan of persecution, and is said to have been warned by civilians at the post of a plot by White officers to force him from the army. The following year, when he discovered post funds missing from his quarters, he attempted to conceal the loss until he could find or replace the money. When Shafter learned of the discrepancy, he immediately filed charges against him. A divided court-martial acquitted Flipper of charges of embezzlement but pronounced him guilty of "conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman." He was dismissed from the service on June 30, 1882. (Accounts of the court-martial proceedings may be found in the San Antonio Express , November 2-December 14, 1881.) President Chester A. Arthur made a final confirmation of the verdict on June 24, 1882. Flipper maintained his innocence until his death and waged a lifelong battle for reinstatement in the army. He went to El Paso after his dismissal and remained there until 1883, when he went to work as an assistant engineer for a surveying company composed of former Confederate officers. He assisted the company in surveying public lands in Mexico and helped run a boundary line between the states of Coahuila and Chihuahua in 1883. Between 1883 and 1891 he worked in Chihuahua and Sonora as a surveyor for several other American land companies. In 1887 he opened a civil and mining engineering office in Nogales, Arizona. In 1891 the community of Nogales employed Flipper to prepare the Nogales de Elias land grant case (1893), a dispute over title to the San Juan de las Boquillas y Nogales Mexican land grant in Cochise County, Arizona. Flipper served as the government's only witness, and his testimony resulted in the grant's being declared invalid. The ruling saved the property of hundreds of landowners. Flipper's activity in the comm

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Confederate President Jefferson Davis

1847

(1808-1889) Friend of Texas. Visited first as officer Mexican War 1847. As U. S. Secretary of War in 1855, built up frontier forts to open West Texas to settlers. Camels imported for patrols, hauling. His postmaster-general and personal aide were Texans, as were many on general staff. After post-war release from prison, visited state and old soldiers he once had told in wartime: "Troops from other states have their reputations to gain, but sons of the Alamo have theirs to maintain." County named for him in 1887.

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Fort Davis

1854

Established by Lieut. Col. Washington Seawell with six companies of the Eighth U.S. Infantry in October 1854 for protecting travelers on the San Antonio-El Paso Road. Named in honor of the then Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis, it was abandoned by federal troops in April 1861, reoccupied in 1867. Troops from the post helped to bring about the peaceful settlement and development of the region. Fort Davis was deactivated in 1891.

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Bush, Ira Jefferson

1891

Ira Jefferson Bush, frontier physician, was born in 1865 on his grandfather's plantation in Lawrence, Mississippi, the oldest son of Rev. Thomas Deloach and Emily (Price) Bush's ten children. He attended public schools and the University of Mississippi, and graduated in 1890 from Louisville Medical College. His first patients were from the cotton plantations of Alto, Louisiana, on the banks of the Boeuf River. After he had swamp fever, on the advice of his doctor to find a better environment for his health, he established a practice at Fort Davis, Jeff Davis County, Texas, in 1891. The army abandoned the post a few months after his arrival, and in 1893 Bush took over the practice of a medical school classmate in Pecos. There he served as surgeon for two railroad companies and was the county health officer. In the summer of 1899 he moved to El Paso. Hobbies of big game hunting and archeological exploration led him to visit Mexico frequently. He served several years as the company doctor for mining and lumber interests in Temósachic, Chihuahua, and elsewhere in Mexico, before returning to El Paso. As a close friend of Francisco (Pancho) Villa , Bush served as chief surgeon general of the insurrectionist army during the Mexican Revolution . He was a member of the El Paso County Medical Society, the State Medical Association of Texas, and the American Medical Association. He married Bertha Henderson in 1907. They had no children. Bush died on March 10, 1939, in an El Paso hospital.

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Fort Davis National Historic Site

1854

Key frontier military post in West Texas, notable as a station for the Buffalo Soldiers, African American troops who served on the Western frontier after the Civil War.

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