Coryell County
Gatesville, Coryell County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Formed from Bell County; created February 4, 1854--Organized March 4, 1854. Named in Honor of James Coryell, born in Tennesse in 1796; a member of the Bowie Expedition to the old San Saba Silver Mines in 1831; a Texas Ranger; killed by Indians near Fort Milam May 27, 1837. County seat Fort Gates 1854; Gatesville since.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Coryell County was carved from Bell County in 1854 and named for James Coryell, a Tennessee-born frontiersman whose short life packed in a search for the fabled San Saba silver mines and service as a Texas Ranger. Coryell was killed by Native raiders near Fort Milam in 1837, during the perilous era of the Republic of Texas. The county seat began at Fort Gates before settling permanently at Gatesville.
Why it matters
The county's naming honors the Ranger-and-frontiersman archetype of Republic-era Texas, when settlement, exploration, and conflict with Native peoples defined the edge of Anglo expansion.
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Related people
- · James Coryell
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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After the Mexican-American War, the U.S. Army strung a line of frontier outposts across Texas, and in 1849 it built Fort Gates, the last of that cordon, to shield settlers from raids along the advancing frontier. Named for Mexican-American War veteran Maj. Collinson Reed Gates, the seventeen-building post drew settling families to its protection and became the nucleus of the surrounding community. The garrison moved on in 1852, and in 1854 the settlement it had seeded gave rise to Coryell County, with Gatesville soon becoming the county seat.
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