Anderson's Mill
Leander, Travis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Built in 1863 - by - Thomas Anderson - A native of Pennsylvania - Used as a powder mill - For the Confederate Armies - During the Civil War - Erected by the State of Texas 1936
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Thomas Anderson, a Pennsylvania native, built this mill in 1863 in the Texas Hill Country, and during the Civil War it produced gunpowder for the Confederate armies. Small backcountry works like this one helped a South cut off from imported munitions supply its troops from local resources. The State of Texas marked the site in 1936.
Why it matters
The mill is a reminder that the Confederate war effort depended on scattered improvised industries—powder works, foundries, and mills—far from the battlefields they supplied.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Thomas Anderson
Related events
- · American Civil War
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Cedar Chopping in Central Texas
Austin, TX
After Texas won independence in 1836, settlers drawn by timber and Brushy Creek's water carved farms and ranches from the land that became Williamson County in 1848. Beyond cotton and livestock, families harvested the ashe juniper they called cedar—cutting fence posts, roof shingles, telephone poles, and charcoal, and shipping cedar rail ties once four rail lines crossed the county. The itinerant 'cedar choppers' who moved camp to camp, including one leased here in 1905–08, became a defining local trade well into the twentieth century.
Granite for the State Capitol
Cedar Park, TX
When quarried limestone proved unsuitable for the new Texas Capitol in the 1880s, builders turned to pink granite from Burnet County's Granite Mountain. The Austin and Northwestern Railroad, which had opened up western Williamson County and founded Brueggerhoff (Cedar Park) and Leander, extended a line to the quarry in 1885. More than 4,000 flatcars of granite rolled through this area in 1886–87 toward Austin—so many that three dozen blocks tumbled into the creekbed were simply left behind, since the state got its stone free of charge, and the Capitol was finished in 1888.
A.S. Mason House
Leander, TX
About 1866, in the years just after the Civil War, farmer and veteran Alpheus S. Mason raised this double-galleried home along Bagdad Road, a military and commercial artery threading through central Texas. Mason threw himself into the life of the region—church, business, Masonic lodge, and politics—helping the town of Bagdad grow before it faded into a ghost town and nearby Leander rose in its place. The Victorian-trimmed porch still speaks of a prosperous frontier farmer putting down roots on a well-traveled road.
Waters Park
Austin, TX
Waters Park was a multi-ethnic community north of Austin in the 19th century, its fortunes tied to the Austin & Northwestern Railroad, which ran a line through the area to haul granite for the State Capitol. The railroad built a recreational park here and ran excursion trains, making it a favorite spot for family outings, and the town grew to include stores, a post office, schools, churches, a cotton gin, and homes. It declined after World War I and was eventually swallowed by the growing city of Austin.