Burleson County
Caldwell, Burleson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Farmed early as 1744 by Indians under guidance of Spanish missionaries. In 1830, Ft. Tenoxtitlan, guarding Brazos crossing, San Antonio Road, attracted Anglo-Texans, who lived off wild game in early years. County created and organized in 1846. Named for Gen.Edward Burleson (1798-1851), veteran of Battle of San Jacinto; Indian fighter; Republic of Texas vice-president and senator, later a state senator. County seat, Caldwell (named for Mathew Caldwell, signer of Declaration of Independence). During the Civil War, furnished troops, cotton and food to Confederate Texas. (1965)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The land here was farmed as early as 1744 by Native people under Spanish missionaries, and in 1830 Fort Tenoxtitlan guarded the Brazos crossing on the old San Antonio Road, drawing Anglo-Texans who lived off wild game. The county was organized in 1846 and named for Gen. Edward Burleson — a hero of San Jacinto, Indian fighter, and Republic of Texas vice-president — with its seat at Caldwell. During the Civil War it sent troops, cotton, and food to the Confederacy.
Why it matters
Burleson County's layered story — Native farming under Spanish missions, a Republic-era fort, and Confederate service — compresses more than a century of the contest for Texas into a single county's origins.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Edward Burleson
- · Mathew Caldwell
Related events
- · Battle of San Jacinto
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Fort Oldham
Cooks Point, TX
Fort Oldham was raised in 1836–37 by pioneers who sheltered with William Oldham, an infantry major in the Texas War for Independence. In seasons of Native raids dozens lived within its walls, and by 1838 it had a post office and stood on the Independence–Tenoxtitlan Road; Oldham himself later rode with the Somervell and Mier Expeditions, was captured by Mexican forces, and escaped to make his way home.
Site of Camino Real
Caldwell, TX
The Camino Real, or Old San Antonio Road, was the great artery of early Texas, tracing ancient Indian and buffalo trails and echoing the 1691 route of Spanish padres. Stretching roughly a thousand miles from Saltillo in Mexico into Louisiana, it carried explorers, traders, soldiers, and settlers for generations before it was surveyed around 1800 as the "King's Highway." Here it also marked the boundary between the early colonies of Stephen F. Austin and Sterling C. Robertson.
Early Chapel Cemetery
Lexington, TX
The Methodist Episcopal Church South bought this cemetery site in 1850, though some burials predate it. Among those resting here are San Jacinto veterans — including Lexington's founder, Capt. James Shaw, and William Hawkins — Civil War soldiers, an early county judge's wife, and, in a set-apart section, enslaved people.
Yegua Creek
Somerville, TX
This 62-mile Brazos tributary was christened "San Francisco" by the Spanish in 1690, but Stephen F. Austin relabeled it "Yegua"—Spanish for "mare"—on his 1822 map, after the wild mustang mares and foals that grazed its timbered banks alongside Native people. Colonist John P. Coles built a mill here in 1826, and in 1837 a measure signed by Sam Houston made the creek a county boundary. Long prone to devastating floods, its waters were finally tamed by Lake Somerville in 1967.