Caldwell County
Lockhart, Caldwell County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A part of De Witt's Colony, 1825-1836. A part of Gonzales County to 1848. First settlements were on Plum Creek and the San Marcos River. Created March 6, 1848; organized August 7, 1848. Named in honor of Nathew Caldwell, "Old Paint," 1798-1842, soldier-statesman. Signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, Commander of the Texas Rangers. Lockhart, the county seat.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The land that became Caldwell County began as part of DeWitt's Colony in 1825 and was carved from Gonzales County when the county was created and organized in 1848, with early settlements along Plum Creek and the San Marcos River. It honors Mathew Caldwell — nicknamed 'Old Paint' — a soldier-statesman who signed the Texas Declaration of Independence and commanded the Texas Rangers. Lockhart was named the county seat.
Why it matters
It roots a Texas county in the empresario colonies and the Revolution, honoring a signer of the Declaration of Independence who helped win and defend the Republic.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
The land of Caldwell County was settled during one of the most dramatic periods in Texas history. In the 1820s Mexico opened its northern province of Texas to colonization through empresarios, who were contractors authorized to bring in settlers. Green DeWitt's colony, centered on Gonzales, was one of these, and this county was once part of it.
Tensions between the colonists and the Mexican government grew through the early 1830s and led to the Texas Revolution of 1835 and 1836. The DeWitt colony area was at the center of it. The first shots of the revolution were fired at nearby Gonzales. In March 1836 delegates declared independence, and a few weeks later Texas won it at San Jacinto.
The years of the Republic that followed were dangerous on this frontier. Conflict with Comanche raiders and renewed threats from Mexico kept settlers in the Plum Creek and San Marcos River country on alert. By the time Texas joined the United States and Caldwell County was created in 1848, the area had already gone through about a generation of colonization, revolution and frontier warfare.
People & events
The county is named for Mathew Caldwell, a soldier and statesman known as "Old Paint." He was a settler of the DeWitt colony who took part in the movement for independence. He was one of the men who signed the Texas Declaration of Independence in March 1836, a dangerous act at a time when the Mexican army was advancing and the outcome was far from certain.
Caldwell's service did not end with independence. During the Republic he took on military leadership on the frontier, and the marker records that he commanded the Texas Rangers. In 1840 he took part in the Battle of Plum Creek, fought near present-day Lockhart after a large Comanche raid swept down to the coast, and that fight became part of this county's own history. He later joined the ill-fated Santa Fe Expedition, which ended in the capture of its members, and in 1842 he helped lead Texan forces against a Mexican invasion of San Antonio.
He died in 1842, only a few years after Texas became independent. The new county created and organized in 1848 was named for him. Its first settlements grew along Plum Creek and the San Marcos River, and Lockhart became the county seat.
Its place in the American story
Caldwell County's history follows the path that brought Texas into the United States. It started with the Mexican empresario system that brought American settlers into the region, continued through the revolution that made Texas an independent republic, and ended with annexation and statehood in 1845. That sequence played a major role in American westward expansion.
The annexation of Texas helped lead to the U.S.-Mexican War, and that war added an enormous stretch of the West to the United States. So the founding events of counties like this one are tied to the shaping of the national map.
Caldwell's own career connects to a long national debate about the frontier. Settlement brought opportunity for some and violent conflict with American Indian nations for others. Plum Creek and battles like it are now remembered from more than one point of view, and the history of a place like this is better understood when all of those people are counted.
If you visit
Lockhart, the county seat, is one of the most rewarding small-town stops in Central Texas. Its courthouse square is lined with historic buildings, and the town is famous across the state for its barbecue. Seeing the square, the courthouse and the rest of town is a good way to experience the community that grew from the frontier this marker describes.
While you are here, think about the landscape the first settlers knew. Plum Creek and the San Marcos River, named on the marker, were the lifelines of early settlement, and the gently rolling country around town still gives a sense of the land that drew colonists two centuries ago.
Lockhart is an easy drive from both Austin and San Antonio, so it fits well into a Texas Revolution road trip. Combine it with Gonzales, the old heart of the DeWitt colony and the site of the revolution's opening shots, to follow the story from colony to county.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Mathew Caldwell
Related events
- · Texas Declaration of Independence
- · DeWitt's Colony
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Battle of Plum Creek
Lockhart, TX
By 1840 the young Republic of Texas and the Comanche and Kiowa nations were locked in escalating violence, inflamed by President Lamar's aggressive policies and the deadly Council House Fight in San Antonio. In revenge, a large war party swept to the coast and sacked Linnville before turning inland laden with plunder. On August 12, 1840, Texan volunteers under Felix Huston, Edward Burleson, and Mathew Caldwell—joined by Tonkawa allies—intercepted them at Plum Creek in a running fight across the prairie.
Isham Jones Good
Lockhart, TX
Georgia-born Isham Jones Good came to Texas in 1835 as a volunteer for the fight for independence from Mexico, narrowly escaping the 1836 Goliad Massacre that claimed Colonel Fannin's command. He returned to settle the frontier, fought in the 1840 Indian battle of Plum Creek, served as an early postmaster and Caldwell County's first sheriff, and helped organize the county in 1848 before turning to cattle ranching in Hays County.
Thomas Osborn
Red Rock, TX
Thomas Osborn was one of the settlers-turned-soldiers who took up arms in the Texas Revolution of 1835–1836, the uprising that severed Mexican Texas from Mexico. The battles named here trace the war's arc: the early clash at Gonzales and the fight at Velasco, the grinding Siege of Bexar that drove Mexican forces from San Antonio, and the disastrous defeat at Coleto that led to the Goliad massacre. Texas erected the marker in 1962 to honor a veteran of that founding struggle.
John Wheeler Bunton
Kyle, TX
Born in Tennessee, John Wheeler Bunton came to Texas in 1833 and threw himself into the fight for independence, signing the Texas Declaration of Independence, helping draft a constitution, and fighting at the Siege of Bexar and the Battle of San Jacinto. A lawyer and rancher, he served in the first and third congresses of the Republic of Texas before settling in Hays County. In 1932 he was reinterred in the State Cemetery in Austin among the republic's honored dead.