'Ben Milam Statue Welcomes Downtown Cameron Visitors' by Jeanne Williams/Temple Daily Telegram

Ben Milam statue welcomes downtown Cameron visitors

by Jeanne Williams

Temple Daily Telegram - January 28, 2008

A statue of Ben Milam has graced the Milam County courthouse

since July 17, 1938, when 3,000 to 4,000 people gathered in

the shade to listen to "Texas Our Texas" and

"The Eyes of Texas" played by the C.H. Yoe High Band.

Photo by Shirley Williams/Temple Daily Telegram Photographer)

CAMERON - Though its bronze sheen is tarnished and hazed by

visiting birds, the majestic statue of Texas Revolutionary

War hero Benjamin Rush Milam still rules as the premier

courthouse yard ornament.

Nearing its 70th anniversary, Milam’s statue has commanded

the southwestern corner at the Cameron courthouse so long

that its occupancy may be taken for granted by many patrons,

said Dr. Lucile Estell, Milam County Historical Commission chairman.

“When you see it every day, you don’t pay much attention to it,”

Dr. Estell said. “Not only is our county named for Ben Milam, but

he is certainly one of our heroes in Texas history. It could be

easy to walk by without really stopping to look at the statue. It’s like our beautiful

old courthouse. You see it every day, but you don’t really look at it, and you don’t

really listen when the chimes play.”

Dr. Frank Summers, Milam County judge said, “I’ve seen it for years and years. Most

people look up at him when they walk by. It just stands there. All I know about it is,

‘Who will go with ol’ Ben Milam to San Antonio?’

“We are looking at some kind of maintenance or preservation program because the birds

use him, and he is discolored,” Summers said. “He is not nearly as handsome as he could

be if he were all shined up.”

The $80,000 price tag of bronze polishing postponed a county-financed makeover, Summers

said.

Ben Milam’s image continues to fascinate tourists, said Charles King, Milam County

Historical Museum director. The monument is photographed continually by visitors

seeking out Cameron’s downtown historical sites: the 1892 courthouse, the 1895 jail

turned museum, the museum annex, Sneed cabin and vintage wooden city jail.

Images of Milam’s statue have adorned book covers, brochures and numerous Internet

sites. Dr. Estell once won a statewide photography contest with her photograph of the

Ben Milam statue.

“I think it’s a beautiful statue to photograph because of the lines,” Dr. Estell said.

“You can get it from so many different angles.”

Dr. Estell said the statue captures “the energy and enthusiasm that has gone into

making Texas, first, a free republic, then, a free state.”

“The very stance of Ben Milam as he goes into there, his arm in the air, and he is

ready for action.”

Milam’s metal likeness, with musket in hand and outstretched arm holding his cap,

captures the Texas hero’s pose when he delivered the impassioned plea, “Boys, who will

go with old Ben Milam into San Antonio?”

Depicting that moment in Texas history, when Milam rallied 300 volunteers for a raid on

San Antonio on Dec. 5, 1835, the statue is historical in its own right based on

documents and letters from the 1930s, King said. Newspaper accounts and original papers

secured in a safety deposit box at a Cameron bank affirm the fact that 2008 marks the

70th anniversary of the unveiling ceremony for Ben Milam’s statue.

Standing atop a pink marble pedestal as it stares mutely southward, Milam’s statue was

unveiled on the Milam County Courthouse’s southwestern corner July 17, 1938, when Texas

Lt. Gov. Walter F. Woodul joined County Judge Jeff T. Kemp and other dignitaries for a

3 p.m. unveiling ceremonies attended by 3,000 to 4,000 people, who gathered in the

shade on the east corner, where they listened to “Texas Our Texas” and “The Eyes of

Texas” played by the C.H. Yoe High Band under the direction of Francis Cox.

Speakers included Milam’s grandniece Mary Francis White, and Roy Law, centennial

committee chairman.

One of 20 monuments commissioned around the state, Milam County’s $14,000 namesake

statue was part of the 1936 Texas Centennial commemoration that targeted historical

monuments, buildings and museums, said Bob Brinkman, Texas Historical Commission

historical markers program coordinator. Some $500,000 in federal and state funds was

appropriated for Texas Centennial memorials in 1936. Statues arrived two years later. A

second Ben Milam statue depicting the war hero holding his musket above his head was

unveiled in August 1938 at Milam Square in San Antonio.

Milam County’s statue was the creation of London-born Bryant Baker, a renowned artist

who corresponded with the county judge about the Ben Milam statue he created at his

Gainesborough Studios in New York. Baker, who studied at the City and Guild Technical

Institute and the Royal Academy of Arts in London, moved to the U.S. in 1916, where he

became a sculptor in the realist style of the frontier, political figures and portrait

statues. The statue of Anson Jones, president of the Republic of Texas, was one of

Baker’s creations.

Baker was commissioned to create busts for five U.S. presidents, and made bronze and

marble statues of political figures such as Abraham Lincoln and Henry Cabot Lodge.

Architect Donald Nelson designed the monument. This is from “Monuments Commemorating

the Centenary of Texas Independence” (Commission of Control for Texas Centennial

Celebrations, Austin, 1938).

Baker, in a March 11, 1938, letter to Kemp, advised he would be sending the statue to

Cameron soon, and because he could not attend the unveiling, promised to send a

telegram to be read during the program.

The courthouse memorial to Milam is set in the center of a greater outer square paved

with granite. The pedestal consists of three blocks of Marble Falls pink granite,

square in horizontal, but angular in vertical surface. The upper block supports the

statue.

The four faces of the block contain inscriptions that explain Milam’s service in the

War of 1812, as well as his involvement in the Texas revolution, and his sudden death

on Dec. 7, 1835, when a Mexican sniper shot him in the head as he was trying to observe

the San Fernando Church tower through a field telescope.

“I see the statue as a symbol of the energy and the enthusiasm that has gone into

making Texas, first a free republic, and then, a free state,” Dr. Estell said.

“It’s the spirit we have to have,” she said. “Not standing back to let the other fellow

do it, but of volunteering and using whatever talents and training we might have to our

disposal to make Milam County and everywhere we live, a better place.”

Ben Milam Statue at Milam County, TX Courthouse

All articles from the Temple Daily Telegram are published with the permission of the
Temple Daily Telegram.
All credit for this article goes to
Jeanne Williams and the Temple Daily Telegram
Photos by Shirley Williams -
Temple Daily Telegram photographer