Bailey County
Muleshoe, Bailey County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A part of Bexar Territory 1836-1876. Created August 21, 1876. Organized November 5, 1918. Named in honor of Peter James Bailey 1812-1836. A Kentucky lawyer killed in defending the Alamo. Muleshoe, the County Seat.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Bailey County carries the name of Peter James Bailey, a young Kentucky lawyer who died defending the Alamo in 1836. Carved from the vast Bexar Territory, the county was created on paper in 1876 but not formally organized until 1918, when enough settlers had arrived on the high plains to sustain a government, with Muleshoe as its seat.
Why it matters
The four-decade gap between the county's creation and its organization mirrors how slowly the remote Texas Panhandle filled with settlers, while its namesake ties the region back to the founding sacrifice of the Texas Revolution.
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Related people
- · Peter James Bailey
Related events
- · Battle of the Alamo
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Bailey County Cemetery
Muleshoe vicinity, TX
When Mariah 'Aunt Rye' Long died in 1918, Emil and Anna Wellsandt gave a parcel of their land for a public burying ground—and it filled quickly, many of the first graves belonging to victims of that year's influenza epidemic. A cemetery association formed at once, and a 'Hill-Top' section was later set aside for the county's indigent dead. After decades of neglect and vandalism the association reorganized in 1996 to preserve the resting place of Bailey County's pioneers and veterans.
Bovina Cemetery
Bovina, TX
Before the town of Bovina existed, the sprawling XIT Ranch ran its southern headquarters near here, and when the railway arrived in 1898 a settlement grew up around the railhead — first nicknamed "Bull Town" for the cattle wandering the tracks. The XIT first used this ground to bury its cowboys, some marked only with names like "Dusty" and "Big Jim," now lost; the earliest surviving marker dates to 1907. A Historic Texas Cemetery, it holds generations of residents and veterans reaching back to World War I.
One of the Trails of Col. Ranald S. MacKenzie
Fieldton, TX
In the summer of 1872, Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie of the U.S. Army marched 240 men and eight officers along the draw near this spot as part of the Army's campaign to force Native peoples off the Texas frontier. His swift, secret movement toward New Mexico aimed to break up a network of traders who paid Indians to raid settlers' cattle and horses. The track his soldiers beat across the plains served later scouts and settlers and is still remembered as Mackenzie's Trail.
Lamb County
Olton, TX
Lamb County was carved from earlier territories and created in 1876, though it wasn't formally organized until 1908, with Olton as its first county seat. It honors George A. Lamb, a young second lieutenant who fell in the opening charge of the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836 — the decisive fight that won Texas its independence. His name binds this High Plains county to the revolution that made Texas a republic.