It all started with a simple question, from a curious daughter to her father: “Daddy, why aren’t these plaques with the famous letter, all over Texas?”
On a February 2023 visit to The Alamo with her family, 13-year-old Sloane McNutt of Corsicana, Texas, first read Lt. Col. William Travis’ famed “Victory or Death” letter, as it’s become known, on a bronze plaque on the lawn in front of The Alamo.
“That’s kicked it off,” said Rusty Busby, Kendall County chair for the Alamo Letter Society project, the local effort to bring to the Kendall County Courthouse a plaque bearing the Feb. 24, 1836 appeal “to the People of Texas and all Americans in the World” to help reinforce Travis’ 157 men inside The Alamo against a pending attack by thousands of Mexican troops under the rule of Gen. Santa Anna.
Of 254 Texas counties, 23 have already erected a monument, sign or other method of displaying the letter, Busby said, with activity underway in 53 others, including Kendall.
“I’m a sixth-generation Texan, and have always been known as an Alamo-aniac,” said Busby, a member of the Alamo Historical Society.
Bill McNutt, father of now-15-year-old Sloane and one of four co-founders of the Alamo Letter Society effort, was the guest speaker at the Historical Society’s most recent meeting.
"It’s a great project,” Busby said. “So many people know about (the letter), but very few actually know what it says, or have ever had the chance to read it.”
In it, Travis — who arrived Feb. 3, 1836, with orders to destroy The Alamo, but instead stood to defend it — appeals for help to stave off an attack by Mexican troops.
“Our flag still waves proudly from the walls; I shall never surrender or retreat,” Travis wrote. “Then, I call on you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism & everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid, with all dispatch.”
He ended the letter with the famous phrase, “Victory or Death.”
“This is just an initial statement of freedom, liberty and patriotism,” Busby said.”Every Texan ought to have the chance to read his words and realize their dedication to stand and fight.”
The plaque will cost about $4,500 to create, Busby said. Shane Stolarczyk, Kendall County judge, personally is donating the funds needed to cast the bronze plaque.
“We have to come up with the rest,” Busby said, acknowledging his committee — Brydon Moon, Christina Bergmann Peese, Paul Barwick and himself — have already hit the fundraising trail.
“We’ve raised $750 already, and may need a couple grand more,” he said. “We hope to have it all in hand by July.”
The committee, he said, likely will meet with an appointed county commissioner to determine a logical point outside the Kendall County Courthouse for the plaque to be erected. Several designs have been established in other counties, providing a choice of efforts for Kendall.
Once the funds are gathered, Busby said it doesn’t take long to erect or place the bronze plaque, and a dedication ceremony will follow, likely sometime in September, he estimates.
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