Acton Public Square
Acton, Hood County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The oldest community in what is now Hood County, Acton was settled during the 1850's. First called "Comanche Peak" when a post office was established here on March 10, 1856, the town was renamed "Acton" before the post office was reopened, March 16, 1868. Clarence P. Hollis, pioneer merchant and early postmaster, donated 1.43 acres of land for this public square in the 1860's. Once the hub of commercial activity, the square declined after many of the buildings around it burned. The site was resurveyed in 1974 and restored as center of this rural community. (1976)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The oldest community in present-day Hood County, Acton was settled in the 1850s and first called "Comanche Peak" when its post office opened in 1856. Renamed Acton by 1868, the town centered on this public square, donated by pioneer merchant Clarence P. Hollis, which once buzzed with commerce before fires and decline set in. The square was resurveyed and restored in 1974 as the heart of the rural community.
Why it matters
The rise, decline, and restoration of Acton's square mirrors the life cycle of countless frontier crossroads towns that anchored settlement across nineteenth-century Texas.
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Related people
- · Clarence P. Hollis
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Acton Methodist Church
Acton, TX
The settlement once called Comanche Peak Post Office took shape in the early 1850s, and its Methodists first worshipped in a shared union church and the local Masonic hall before establishing themselves on their own. In 1874 the trustees bought land here for church, school, and burials, raised their first sanctuary in 1899, and grew steadily—especially after the nearby de Cordova Bend Reservoir revived the area in the 1960s. From a handful of frontier worshippers the congregation swelled into the hundreds by the 1990s.
Acton Baptist Church (First Baptist Church of Acton)
Acton, TX
In 1855, a preacher known as "Fighting Joe" Robinson gathered about twenty charter members to organize a Baptist congregation on the North Texas frontier at Acton. He was succeeded by the Rev. James Halford, a son-in-law of frontiersman David Crockett, whose family had settled nearby. For years the Baptists shared a communal building called the Long House before raising their own sanctuary in 1894, a structure still in use today.
Acton Cemetery
Acton, TX
Acton Cemetery holds the grave of Elizabeth Patton Crockett (1788–1860), widow of Alamo hero David Crockett, along with two of his children; a monument and statue were raised in her memory in 1911. The surrounding grounds form the smallest state park in Texas. The community — first called Comanche Peak — was renamed Acton in 1855 by merchant C. P. Hollis, and pioneers set aside this plot as a burial ground after building a shared church and school.
Grave of Elizabeth Crockett
Acton, TX
This grave marks the resting place of Elizabeth Crockett, second wife of frontiersman and Alamo defender David Crockett, who married him in Tennessee in 1816. After Crockett's death at the Alamo, Elizabeth eventually came to Texas on land granted for his service and died in 1860 in what is now Hood County. Her monument stands as a tribute to the family the famed frontiersman left behind.