State historians issue plaques, rely on locals for facts

By Matthew Waller
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas is a state that loves its history. From the heroes of the Alamo to the founding dates of churches, the stories of how Texans have lived and died spell pride for its residents.

Sometimes, however, the facts that grace a Texas historical marker are wrong.

After at least one error was found on a recently unveiled marker in Corpus Christi, a Texas Historical Commission staff member said about three or four of the 300 plaques that go up across the state annually might have errors.

The state has about 16,000 plaques detailing everything from famous figures to battle scenes, which works out to about 160 factual errors over the years. Each plaque costs about $1,800 to replace entirely.

Errors can run from misspellings of people’s names to incorrect dates.

“It does happen from time to time that someone will come up with information that wasn’t available,” said Historical Marker Program Coordinator Bob Brinkman.

The Texas Historical Commission relies on the local county historical commissions to make sure the facts in its application for a marker are accurate.

The commission ends up replacing about 30 plaques each year, Brinkman said. Not all are replaced because of errors, but sometimes because of a change in location, such as a historic church moving to a new address.

In the case of the Corpus Christi marker, a civic leader and one of the daughters of civil rights champion Dr. Hector. P. Garcia said the new Garcia marker has several facts wrong. Another of Garcia’s daughters, who spearheaded the marker and provided documentation and research for the plaque, said only one date is incorrect. She said the accuracy of the three other points are up for debate.

Carroll High School teacher and LULAC No. 4444 President Nancy Vera claimed through primary source documents that the marker for Garcia incorrectly characterizes a medal he received, cites the wrong date for getting a medal from President Ronald Reagan, states that Garcia volunteered for service rather than being drafted, and gives the wrong year for when he became an alternate ambassador to the United Nations.

“From now on I don’t think I’ll be able to trust the accuracy of a historical marker again,” Vera said.

She noted that a similar marker for Garcia in the city of Mercedes allegedly has the wrong date for his ambassadorship and mischaracterizes one of his medals.

In response to her statement, Brinkman said that each new historical marker is a chance to get history right.

“I think you can trust the vast majority of them,” Brinkman said. “Just like anything else in print, there may be a mistake that has been repeated. … If anything, markers are an opportunity to build on existing work and also to make corrections.”

Anita Eisenhauer, with the Nueces County Historical Commission, said Wanda Garcia, another daughter of Garcia, provided the information the county commission gave to the Texas Historical Commission for the marker placed at Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial in late February.

“I just assumed it was correct,” Eisenhauer said.

Cecilia Garcia Akers, another daughter of Garcia, sided with Vera on the errors on the marker. Akers said her Dr. Hector P. Garcia Memorial Foundation hadn’t been consulted in getting the plaque’s information, and she went public with her disapproval.

“I am hoping that the public comes forward to speak their disappointment that an American Hero is not adequately represented on this marker,” Akers said on Facebook.

Wanda Garcia argued from her own research that a medal her father received was accurately characterized, that he had not been drafted and that the telegram that Vera cites was not a draft notice.

The county, she said, is working to remove the erroneous date from the marker regarding the medal from Reagan.

Eisenhauer said the county commission does not have the money to get a full replacement.

“I have not been to look at the markers,” Eisenhauer said. “We’re still in the process of trying to understand what was going on.”

Brinkman said that if the Texas Historical Commission was responsible for the error, it would take responsibility for the plaque and replace it.

Anyone who finds an error on a historical marker can contact the Texas Historical Commission, which in turn will contact the organization that originally requested the marker.

A correction can be handled in different ways. The Texas Historical Commission could affix an additional plaque giving correct or clarifying information, or giving spelling variations found in historical documents for a person’s name.

Most recently, the city of Richardson asked for a correction on a historical marker to fix the initial of the city’s namesake, Brinkman said.

And if only one or two characters are wrong, the foundry may be able to repair the individual letters or numerals on the original plaque.

Brinkman said Texas’ historical marker program is more accurate than most.

The process to get a plaque begins at the county level. County historical commission members gather to decide whether they want a plaque, then submit application materials to the state.

“I think it’s more accurate than other states because we rely on someone locally” to ensure that the material is fact checked, Brinkman said.

The text of historical markers is available online at atlas.thc.state.tx.us.

Brinkman said that for his commission, historical accuracy is “extremely important.”

Reprinted with permission from the San Angelo Standard-Times.