|
Marker Title: Adams-Shaw House
Address: 1600 Shaw Dr.
City: Brownwood
Year Marker Erected: 1975
Marker Text: This house was erected about 1876 for George H. Adams (1842-1920),
a rancher and former Texas Ranger, whose cattle brand was carved into
the front step. English-born stonemason William Frederick Morton (1851-1926)
built it of sandstone quarried in nearby Willis Creek. The structure
was purchased in 1908 by Laura (d. 1944) and Colin McKeever Shaw (1850-1944).
It was restored and enlarged after 1945 by their son, Neil K. Shaw (1901-1969),
and his wife, Maud Dabney Shaw. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1975
Marker Title: Brown County
City: Brownwood
Year Marker Erected: 1936
Marker Location: Roadside park, west of Pecan Bayou Bridge, on US 67/84
at east city limits.
Marker Text: Created August 27, 1856; Organized March 21, 1857. Named
for Capt. Henry S. Brown; came to Texas in 1824; Indian trader and fighter,
commanded a company at the Battle of Velasco, member of the Convention
of 1832; county seat, Brownwood 1856; moved to new site of same name,
1867. (1936)
Marker Title: William Franklin Brown
City: Early
Year Marker Erected: 1982
Marker Location: Jones Chapel Cemetery, County Road 346 off US 377,
Early.
Marker Text: (Apr. 9, 1820 - Dec. 23, 1918) In 1857 Georgia native William
Franklin Brown moved to this area, where he was a pioneer cotton farmer.
The following year he led in the organization of Brown County and was
elected to serve as district clerk and as justice of the peace. He also
participated in early defenses against hostile Indians. Married three
times, Brown was the father of 12 children, several of whom died as
a result of frontier tragedies. (1982)
Marker Title: The Rev. Noah Turner Byars
City: Brownwood
Year Marker Erected: 2001
Marker Location: Howard Payne University campus, Austin Ave. at Center
Ave.
Marker Text: Noah T. Byars (1808-1888) played an integral role in the
establishment of the Baptist denomination in Texas. Born in Spartanburg,
South Carolina, he arrived in Texas in the early 1830s and set up a
blacksmith/gunsmith shop at Washington-on-the-Brazos, where delegates
met and adopted the Declaration of Independence from Mexico on March
2, 1836. Immediately following the declaration, Byars was appointed
armorer of the Texas army. Following victory at San Jacinto, he served
as sergeant-at-arms of the Texas Senate and justice of the peace in
Travis County. A charter member of the Baptist church established at
Washington-on-the-Brazos in 1838, Byars was ordained to preach on October
16, 1841. The Baptist State Convention appointed Byars as its first
missionary in 1848. Credited with founding more than 60 churches and
four Baptist associations, Byars devoted the last 40 years of his life
to establishing congregations on the Texas frontier. He helped organize
the First Baptist Church of Brownwood in 1876. After moving permanently
to Brownwood in 1882, Noah Byars began writing letters to other Baptist
ministers urging the creation of a Baptist college in central Texas.
That idea was brought to fulfillment under the leadership of Dr. John
D. Robnett, pastor of Brownwood's First Baptist Church, with the opening
of Howard Payne College in 1889, one year after Byars' death. He is
buried in Brownwood's Greenleaf Cemetery. (2001)
Marker Title: Camp Collier, C.S.A.
City: Brownwood
Year Marker Erected: 1963
Marker Location: Brown County Courthouse, Broadway and Center, Brownwood.
Marker Text: Located 13 mi. southwest, this camp was one of a chain
of Texas frontier posts a day's horseback ride apart from the Red River
to the Rio Grande. Occupied by the Texas Frontier Regiment. Patrols
and scouting parties frequently sent out kept Indian actions in check
and rounded up draft evaders. Always needed were food, clothing, horses,
ammunition. These men shared few of the glories of the war. Yet at the
cost of the lives of not a few of them, these Confederate soldiers managed
to bring a measure of protection to a vast frontier area. Texas Civil
War Frontier Defense Texas made an all-out effort for the Confederacy
after voting over 3 to 1 for secession. 90,000 troops, noted for mobility
and heroic daring, fought on every battlefront. An important source
of supply and gateway to foreign trade thru Mexico, Texas was the storehouse
of the South. Camp Collier and other posts on this line were backed
by patrols of State Rangers organized militia, and citizens' posses
scouting from nearby "family forts." This was part of a 2000
mile frontier and coastline successfully defended by Texans. (1963)
Marker Title: Connell Cemetery
City: Brownwood vicinity
Year Marker Erected: 1997
Marker Location: 3 mi. SE of Brownwood on FM 2525, right on CR just
before FM 2126.
Marker Text: William Connell came to Texas with his family in 1834.
He later served in the Republic of Texas Army, the Texas Rangers, and
the Confederate Army. Connell Cemetery, believed to be one of the oldest
in Brown County, was probably in use before 1861. When William and Loumisa
Wills Connell buried their son William Archibald in 1866, they erected
what is believed to have been the first headstone on this site. The
last was that of Edward Bruce McCallum, dated 1949. Sixteen families
are noted; over twenty graves remain unmarked. Connell Cemetery was
deeded to Brown County in 1893. (1997)
Marker Title: Cross Cut Cemetery
City: Brownwood vicinity
Year Marker Erected: 1997
Marker Location: SH 279, 24 miles northwest of Brownwood.
Marker Text: Settlement began in this area of Brown County after the
Civil War when several families from southern states moved here. They
formed a community, initially known as Cross Out. It became Cross Cut
in 1897 when an error was made on a post office application. Caroline
Pentecost Elsberry was the first person buried in this community cemetery
in July 1879. The two-acre plot of land dedicated as a graveyard is
believed to have been donated by Mark and Sarah Pentecost. Oil was discovered
in 1923 in the Cross Cut sand formation. The small town quickly swelled
to accommodate the increase in population and several new businesses
were added. By 1940 the population of the town was exceeded by the number
of burials in the cemetery. In 1954 the Cross Cut School consolidated
with Cross Plains Schools, and the town declined thereafter. Only a
few buildings and the cemetery remain. Among those buried here are early
settlers and their descendants, and veterans of conflicts from the Civil
War through the Vietnam War. A cemetery association was formed in 1976,
and a perpetual care trust was established. The site continues to serve
the area. (1997)
Marker Title: Greenleaf Fisk
City: Brownwood
Year Marker Erected: 1968
Marker Location: Courthouse square, Center and Broadway, Brownwood.
Marker Text: "Father of Brownwood" (1807-1888) Donor of present
townsite of Brownwood, Fisk was noted as a soldier, public servant,
surveyor, and businessman. The son of English parents, he was born in
New York. As a boy he was so studious that he voluntarily gave up recess
periods to read. In 1834 he abandoned his preparation for the Presbyterian
ministry and, with a friend, embarked down the Ohio River on a skiff
to brave the Texas frontier. Settling at Mina (present Bastrop), he
fought in the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836. He later served in various
county offices in Bastrop and Williamson counties and was a senator
in the Republic of Texas. As a government surveyor in this period, he
mapped this region and like it so well he determined to settle here.
Having received in 1846, for his service in the Texas Revolution, a
large land grant in this vicinity, he moved here in 1860. Besides teaching,
he also served as county judge and in other offices. When difficulties
arose over the location of the county seat, he donated 60 acres for
the town and 100 acres for county purposes. He then persuaded many citizens
to move here from the old townsite. At his death in 1888, Fisk was buried
in Greenleaf Cemetery. He married twice and had 15 children. (1968)
Marker Title: Mud Creek Cemetery
City: Bangs vicinity
Year Marker Erected: 1983
Marker Location: From Bangs take US 84 west one mile. Turn north onto
FM 585, continue 1/2 mile past FM 2492. Turn west onto county road and
continue one mile to cemetery. On south of highway through cattle guard.
Marker Text: Named for nearby Mud Creek, this graveyard has served residents
of the Thrifty and Fry communities for more than 100 years. The first
person known to be buried at the site was infant Martha Blackwell, who
died in 1864. However, a rock slab that bears an illegible name indicates
the cemetery was used as early as 1862. Others buried in Mud Creek Cemetery
include pioneer settler Charles Mullins (1790-1880) who brought his
family to the area in 1858, victims of Indian attacks, and persons involved
in the 1926-27 area oil boom. (1983)
Marker Title: Thrifty
City: Brownwood vicinity
Year Marker Erected: 2001
Marker Location: 10 miles northwest of Brownwood on SH 279, then 2.7
miles west on FM 2492 right-of-way at junction with county road 105.
Marker Text: Once a thriving agricultural area and regional trade center,
the community of Thrifty was established after the U.S. Army relocated
Camp Colorado, a frontier defense post, along nearby Jim Ned Creek in
1857. The first family to settle permanently in the area was that of
Charles Mullins, whose three sons and one daughter and their families
established ranches and homes in the Jim Ned Creek valley. Once federal
troops were withdrawn from the area after Texas voters elected to secede
from the Union in February 1861, settlers were on their own to provide
for their defense, encountering many of the dangers of frontier life.
Thrifty saw its greatest development in the period following the Civil
War and Reconstruction, when a post office was established (first under
the name Jim Ned, later named Thrifty). John Charles Mullins donated
four acres of land for school and church purposes in 1881. At one time,
Thrifty had a hotel, saloon, sawmill, sorghum press, cotton gin, blacksmith
shop and physicians' offices. The mercantile store, operated by Dr.
G.W. Allen and John Charles Mullins, served as a regional trading center
for farmers and ranchers in the area. In 1886, the railroad bypassed
Thrifty, and its life as a vital trade center diminished. This event,
coupled with a severe drought between 1885 and 1888, triggered an exodus
from the community, as residents sought viable employment elsewhere.
The story of Thrifty remains as a lesson in the development of the Texas
frontier and a part of Brown County's history. (2001)
|
Markers (click on a topic to jump to that section.)
Uncommemorated Active Battle Map