If Jacob Brown Hadn't Died at Fort Texas...

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon

 If Major Jacob Brown hadn't died at Fort Texas on the northern banks of the Rio Grande at the start of the U.S.-Mexican war, would Brownsville still be Brownsville?

 We certainly wouldn't have had a Fort Brown. Would we have been named Ringgoldsville? Samuel Ringgold was killed at the Battle of Palo Alto. We may have still had a Ringgold Street and a Ringgold Pavilion.

 Would Charles Stillman have named the city after himself? Stillmansville doesn't sound quite right. Charleston? Maybe. Charleston, Texas. There's already one of those. Maybe Elizabethtown after his wife. Nah, that sounds worse than Stillmansville.

 What about naming it after the Red Robber of the Rio Grande? Cortinasville. Cortinatown? Hmmm...the Texians and the Americanos wouldn't have liked that idea very much.

 So, Brownsville it is. That works for me. And no, it isn't called Brownsville because there are brown people here. It isn't called Brownsville because the town is the color of dirt. Brownsville, Texas. 

 Thank you for your sacrifice, Major Jacob Brown. I only wish they hadn't exhumed you and moved your remains to Louisiana.

 The Stillmansville Beacon? Yeah, I don't think so.

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