Bell County
Belton vicinity, Bell County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Settlement began on Lampasas River, 1847. Created Jan. 22, organized Aug. 1, 1850. Named for Peter Hansbrough Bell (1812-1898), native of Virginia; veteran of Battle of San Jacinto; served in Somervell expedition to stop Mexico's Raids into Texas; officer in Mexican War; Governor of Texas 1849-1853; U.S. Congressman, 1853-1857. First county seat Nolanville. Moved Dec. 16, 1851, to Belton. By 1860 population was 4,799. Sent 12 troop companies into Civil War. Furnished goods from flour mills, hat factory, tanyard, leather works, blacksmith shops, cabinet shop, beef slaughter pens. (1965)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Settlement along the Lampasas River began in 1847, and Bell County was created in 1850, taking its name from Peter Hansbrough Bell—a San Jacinto veteran, Mexican War officer, and governor of Texas. The county seat soon moved from Nolanville to Belton, and by 1860 nearly 4,800 people lived there. When the Civil War came, the county sent a dozen troop companies and supplied its cause with flour mills, a hat factory, tanneries, and workshops.
Why it matters
The county's story braids frontier settlement, the making of Texas statehood, and wartime mobilization into the biography of a single Central Texas community.
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Related people
- · Peter Hansbrough Bell
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Six Miles East to Site of Little River Fort
Belton, TX
In November 1836, some twenty Rangers under Lt. George B. Erath built this Republic of Texas outpost, raising seven or eight cabins, a blockhouse, and a picket stockade around a half-acre near a spring. Rations were spare — an ear of corn a day, plus game, honey, and a little coffee. The Rangers withdrew by mid-1837, and settlers and hunters later used the site before its remains were cleared in the 1840s.
Site of Childers-Shanklin Mill
Belton, TX
Robert Childers, a pioneer settler and veteran of the 1836 Army of Texas, built the first water-powered mill in Bell County here in 1847. Sold in 1856 to G. W. Shanklin, who was said to have built the best water race in Texas, the site also served as a stage stand on the Old Military Road and a crossing point for cattle bound up the trail. It was a hub where settlement, commerce, and travel converged on the early Texas frontier.
Wilson Van Dyke
Belton, TX
South Carolina native Wilson Van Dyke joined the 1842 Somervell Expedition, mounted to drive the Mexican army from Texas, and pushed on across the Rio Grande in the ill-fated venture that followed. Captured, he survived the notorious "Black Bean Episode" — in which prisoners drew beans to decide who would be executed — and endured imprisonment near Mexico City until 1844, later taking part in Civil War-era musters before dying at his Bell County home.
Captain Andrew Caddell
Belton, TX
Andrew Caddell was a North Carolina-born soldier who marched with the Texian army in the 1836 revolution, standing in the ranks as a private at the Battle of San Jacinto that won Texas its independence. He later rose to command a company of volunteers, part of the generation of frontier settlers who fought for and then built the young Republic of Texas. He and his wife Rhoda made their lives in the Bell County country, where this marker records their years.