Col. William F. Upton
Schulenburg, Fayette County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(1832 - 1887) Coming to Texas in 1853, W. F. Upton settled near High Hill. He organized (1861) and was Lieutenant Colonel of Texas state troops guarding frontiers and coastline during the Civil War. A leading state legislator in 1866 and 1879-85, he aided post-war recovery in Texas. Had a store in Schulenburg many years. A West Texas County, created soon after he died, honors name of Col. Upton and a brother, Col. John C. Upton, a hero killed at second battle of Manassas in 1862. Recorded-1976
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Arriving in Texas in 1853, W. F. Upton settled near High Hill and, when war came in 1861, organized and led Texas state troops guarding the frontier and coastline as a lieutenant colonel. After the war he became a leading state legislator who worked to rebuild Texas, while keeping a store in Schulenburg for many years. A West Texas county bears his name and that of his brother John, a colonel killed at the Second Battle of Manassas in 1862.
Why it matters
Upton's career bridges the Confederate war effort and the difficult work of Reconstruction-era recovery, embodying a generation of Texans who fought, then had to rebuild.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
When William F. Upton arrived in Texas in 1853, the state was young, growing fast and still defining itself. Fayette County, in the rolling country between the Colorado River and the coastal plain, was filling with settlers, including many German and Czech immigrants whose churches and farms would give the area its lasting character. High Hill, where Upton settled, was one of those communities.
Eight years later the Civil War changed everything. Texas seceded in 1861 and joined the Confederacy, and it faced threats on several fronts at once. Its long Gulf coastline was open to Union blockade and raids. Its western frontier was exposed to conflict with Native American nations, especially once many regular troops were withdrawn. Texas raised state forces to guard both.
After the war came the hard years of Reconstruction. Texas had to rebuild its economy, reorganize its government and deal with the end of slavery and the return of Union authority. For the men elected to lead the state in those decades, the work was difficult, contested and often divisive.
The railroad also reshaped Fayette County in these years. Schulenburg grew as a railroad town in the 1870s, drawing people and businesses from older settlements nearby, including High Hill, and becoming the local commercial center.
People & events
William F. Upton came to Texas in 1853 and settled near High Hill. When war broke out in 1861, he organized a body of Texas state troops and served as its lieutenant colonel. Their job was defending Texas itself, guarding the frontier and the coastline while many other Texans marched off to distant battlefields.
His brother, Colonel John C. Upton, took the other path. He served in the war in the East and was killed at the Second Battle of Manassas in 1862, fought in northern Virginia near the site of the war's first major battle. The marker calls him a hero, and his death was one of many among the Texas soldiers who fought in Virginia.
After the war, William Upton turned to public life. He served as a leading state legislator in 1866 and again from 1879 to 1885, helping Texas recover from the war's devastation. Between those roles, he ran a store in Schulenburg for many years, making him a familiar figure in the town's daily business.
Upton died in 1887. Soon afterward, Texas created a new county in West Texas and named it Upton County in honor of both brothers. One had defended the state at home and helped rebuild it; the other had died far away in battle.
Its place in the American story
The Upton brothers' story reflects the experience of a whole generation of Southern men. Some fought on distant fields and didn't come home. Others served closer to home and lived to face the long work of rebuilding afterward. The Civil War divided families by where men served and by who survived, as well as by loyalties.
William Upton's career also tracks the arc from secession to Reconstruction. He served in the Confederate war effort and then in the legislature of a state trying to find its way back into the Union. That path was common among the region's leaders, and it shaped Southern politics for decades. Remembering it honestly means recognizing that the cause these men fought for was bound up with preserving slavery, and that the recovery they led unfolded amid fierce struggles over the rights of newly freed people.
The Second Battle of Manassas, where John Upton fell, was a major Confederate victory in the summer of 1862. It led directly to the first Confederate invasion of the North and the Battle of Antietam. Texas soldiers fought in some of the war's most famous campaigns, far from home.
Finally, Upton County is part of how Texas remembered itself. As the state organized its vast western lands in the late nineteenth century, it often named new counties after figures of its own recent past, turning the map itself into a memorial.
If you visit
Schulenburg is a friendly small town in the heart of Fayette County, and it makes a pleasant stop between Houston and San Antonio. The marker connects you to one of its prominent early citizens, a man who kept a store here for years and whose name is now on a county hundreds of miles to the west.
The surrounding countryside is part of the story. High Hill, where Upton first settled, is nearby, and the region is famous for its "Painted Churches," whose interiors are richly decorated by the German and Czech communities who built them. A drive through the rolling farmland gives you a feel for the landscape Upton knew.
It's worth thinking about the two very different wartime paths this marker describes: one brother guarding the Texas coast and frontier, the other dying in Virginia. Standing in a quiet Texas town, you can sense how far the war reached into ordinary communities.
If your travels ever take you to West Texas, Upton County completes the story, since its name carries both brothers' memory. For now, Schulenburg and the countryside around it are a great place to reflect on how one Texas family lived through war and its aftermath.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · William F. Upton
- · John C. Upton
Related events
- · Second Battle of Manassas
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Old Anderson Place
Schulenburg, TX
Built before 1857 by carpenter and blacksmith William B. Anderson, this is considered the area's oldest occupied house. Anderson wore many hats—postmaster, justice of the peace, notary, and sergeant of the Lyons Riflemen—and his family reportedly watched Confederate military drills from the second story during the Civil War. Later owners included Louis Schulenburg, the town's namesake, and railroad investor T. W. Pierce.
Creuzbaur's Battery, C.S.A. "The Big Guns of Fayette"
Schulenburg, TX
Raised in Fayette County in 1861 and led by former Prussian artillery officer Edmund Creuzbaur, this Confederate battery of roughly 150 men and four cannons served across Texas and Louisiana. Its most dramatic action came at Calcasieu Pass in May 1864, where it attacked and captured two Union gunboats in a 75-minute fight. The unit later passed to Creuzbaur's brother-in-law, Capt. Charles Welhausen.
Clear Creek Cemetery
Oakland, TX
The Clear Creek community took root in the 1850s along the Old Gonzales Road, the wagon route linking San Felipe, Columbus, and San Antonio. A Methodist church organized there, and the burial ground that grew beside it served the area for decades, holding more than a dozen Civil War veterans and members of the Sons of Temperance among its marble, granite, and local sandstone markers. When the railroad reached nearby Weimar in 1873, the community faded, but families kept returning to the cemetery, whose last recorded burial came in 1929.
Black Jack Springs Cemetery
La Grange, TX
By 1840, Anglo and German families had settled near the headwaters of Black Jack Branch, and when pioneer Charles Luck buried his brother-in-law Thomas Oeding in 1867, this graveyard was born. Among its early burials is Wil Loessin, who with his three brothers volunteered as U.S. cavalrymen during the Civil War and died of illness after being held as a prisoner of war at Camp Groce. Adjoining Trinitatis Lutheran Church rose in 1871, and the cemetery gathered homesteaders, craftsmen, and the renowned German-Texas poet Johannes Romberg.