TOMBSTONE TUESDAY: Angelina Belle Peyton Eberly

TOMBSTONE TUESDAY (April 15, 2025): Angelina Belle Peyton Eberly is considered by many to be one of the bravest women in Texas history. She was born in Sumner County, Tennessee, on July 2, 1798, the daughter of John and Margaret (Hamilton) Peyton. She married her first cousin, Jonathan C. Peyton, on July 2, 1818, and the couple left Tennessee for New Orleans. They boarded the Good Intent in June 1822 bound for Matagorda Bay. By 1825, they had settled in San Felipe de Austin, where they and their 3 children operated an inn and tavern known as Peyton’s Tavern. Jonathan Peyton would claim his place among Austin’s original settlers—the Old 300—receiving title to his Matagorda land claim in August 1827. William B. Travis often took meals at the tavern, located just a short walk from his San Felipe law office. Jonathan died in June 1834, but Angelina continued to operate the hotel until the town was destroyed to prevent its falling into Mexican hands.

After the Texas Revolution, Angelina was in Columbia (now West Columbia), the first official capitol of the new Republic. Late in 1836, she met and married Jacob Eberly, a widower. They lived briefly in Bastrop and in 1839 settled in Austin, where she ran the Eberly House. On October 18, 1839, she served dinner to President Mirabeau B. Lamar and his cabinet. During his second term in office, President Sam Houston chose to live in her house rather than occupy the presidential home. Angelina’s husband Jacob Eberly died in 1841.

In December 1842, President Sam Houston privately tasked Thomas I. Smith and Eli Chandler to return the public documents from Austin to Washington-on-the-Brazos. The men were almost finished loading the wagons with papers when they were noticed by Mrs. Eberly. Realizing that the symbols of federal government were being removed from the city, she ran to Congress Avenue and fired a six-pound gun that city officials kept loaded with grapeshot in case of Indian attack. Austinites, aroused by the cannon, became involved in what is known as the Archives War https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/archives-war.

Ultimately, the archives were returned to Austin permanently. There is a bronze statue of Angelina situated on the western side of Congress Avenue between Sixth and Seventh streets in Austin. 

In April 1846 Angelina moved to Lavaca (later Port Lavaca) and leased Edward Clegg's Tavern House in Lavaca. By 1851 she was running a hotel in Indianola. She died in Indianola on August 15, 1860, and is buried in the Old Town Cemetery in Indianola, however her exact burial place is unknown as her marker was destroyed in the hurricane of September 1875. Peyton Bell Lytle, her grandson, was named sole heir to her estate, appraised at $50,000. He later died as a student in Philadelphia at the age of 21. His headstone in the Old Town Cemetery was also victim to the 1875 storm. On April 28, 1979, the Calhoun County Historical Commission sponsored the formal dedication of an official Texas Historical marker in honor of her life. The marker is located on SH 316 near Magnolia Beach, approximately 16 miles southeast of Port Lavaca.

Tombstone Tuesday is written and compiled each week by Jody Weaver and Sheryl Cuellar of the Calhoun County Historical Commission, sharing the people and stories behind Calhoun County's history.