Confederate Memorial Museum
Columbus, Colorado County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Built 1883 by town of Columbus, using over 400,000 handmade bricks. Has 32-inch walls. Served as water tower and fire house until 1912. Since 1926 owned by Shropshire-Upton Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1966
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This sturdy brick tower — built by the town of Columbus in 1883 from more than 400,000 handmade bricks, with 32-inch walls — served as the community's water tower and fire house until 1912. Since 1926 it has been owned by the Shropshire-Upton Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which made it the Confederate Memorial Museum. Its dual life joins civic infrastructure with Lost Cause memorial culture.
Why it matters
The building reflects both frontier-town public works and the early-20th-century movement, led by groups like the UDC, to shape memory of the Confederacy.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
The Columbus Tap Railway
Columbus, TX
When the state's pioneering Buffalo Bayou, Brazos & Colorado railroad routed its Houston-to-Austin line through nearby Alleyton and bypassed Columbus in the 1850s, local planters and merchants fought back by chartering their own Columbus Tap Railway in 1860 to connect the two. The Civil War intervened; though the Confederacy found the line useful and even impressed labor to work its roadbed in 1863, it went unfinished during the fighting. Completed after the war, it eventually folded into the Southern Pacific system.
Capt. William G. Hunt House
Columbus, TX
Virginia-born William G. Hunt came to Columbus around 1831 and threw himself into the making of Texas, fighting at the 1835 Battle of Gonzales — the "come and take it" opening of the Texas Revolution — and in the capture of San Antonio that followed. A farmer and trader who later served in the 13th Texas Infantry during the Civil War, he bought this house in 1859 and lived here until 1898. Built around 1858, it is regarded as the oldest house in Columbus, still holding its original pine floors and ceilings.
Ben Marshall Baker
Columbus, TX
Ben Marshall Baker and his brothers founded the "Colorado Citizen" newspaper in 1857, and all three joined the Confederate Army when the Civil War came — one brother, Hicks, was killed in the fighting. Ben returned to publish the paper from 1873 until his death in 1907, making this house the center of the town's press. His widow Virginia lived on here until 1916.
Robert Henry Harrison, M.D.
Columbus, TX
A Georgia-born doctor's son, Robert Henry Harrison earned his medical degree in 1846 and served as a Confederate colonel before settling in Columbus in 1869. From his office on the town square he became a founder and president of the State Medical Association, helped create Texas' Board of Health, wrote prolifically on medicine, and in 1880 built a hospital for railway workers.