David H. and Jerusha Dyches McFadin House
Circleville, Williamson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Built 1850 by David H. and Jerusha Dyches McFadin. Mr. McFadin, born in Tennessee, came to Texas 1828; fought in Battle of San Jacinto. House has 27" native stone walls. By its cool, perpetual spring, Confederates camped on way to Civil War. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1965
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
David McFadin, a Tennessean who came to Texas in 1828 and fought at the Battle of San Jacinto, built this sturdy house in 1850 with native stone walls more than two feet thick. Its cool, never-failing spring later drew Confederate soldiers who camped here on their way to the Civil War.
Why it matters
The home links two defining chapters of Texas history—the revolution that won independence and the Civil War that followed—in the life of one frontier family.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
When David H. McFadin arrived in 1828, Texas was part of Mexico. American settlers had been coming in under colonization arrangements for several years, drawn by cheap, fertile land. Tension between these newcomers and the Mexican government kept building until it broke out as the Texas Revolution in 1835 and 1836.
The revolution ended at San Jacinto in April 1836, when Texian forces under Sam Houston defeated the Mexican army in a short, decisive battle. Texas became an independent republic and then, in 1845, joined the United States.
By 1850, when this house was built, settlers were spreading into the rolling country of Central Texas. Families like the McFadins built homes meant to last, often using the stone that lay right at hand. A decade later came another upheaval, the Civil War, which drew young Texans away from farms like this one.
People & events
David H. McFadin was born in Tennessee and came to Texas in 1828, early in the era of American settlement. He was among the men who fought at the Battle of San Jacinto, the victory that won Texas its independence. That alone puts him inside one of the most famous moments in Texas history.
More than a decade later, he and his wife, Jerusha Dyches McFadin, built this house in 1850. They built it to endure: its walls are native stone, twenty-seven inches thick. Walls like that kept the inside cooler in Texas summers and made the house a solid, lasting home on what was still something of a frontier.
The house also had a gift of nature: a cool, never-failing spring. When the Civil War came, Confederate soldiers camped beside it on their way to war. The same family that had lived through the fight for Texas independence saw a new generation march off to a very different conflict.
Its place in the American story
The McFadin house ties together two turning points in the American story. The Texas Revolution led, within a decade, to Texas joining the United States, and the annexation helped set off the war with Mexico and a huge expansion of the country's territory. A veteran of San Jacinto building a home here connects this quiet spot to that sweeping change.
Then the Civil War brought Texas into the national crisis over slavery and union. The soldiers camped at this spring were part of the Confederate war effort that pulled men from all over the state.
So in one lifetime and one house you can see a territory become a republic, then a state, and then a state at war. It is a very American arc, told through one family's home.
If you visit
The most striking thing about this house is its walls. Stone more than two feet thick tells you a lot about the people who built it: they meant to stay, and they built against heat and hard times. If you can see the stonework, notice how it was quarried from local rock rather than hauled in.
Think, too, about the spring. Water decided where people settled, camped, and travelled in early Texas, and a reliable spring made this spot valuable long before anyone wrote it into history.
This is a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in the Williamson County countryside, so treat it with the respect due a historic home and stay off private property. It fits a scenic drive through Central Texas, where you can imagine the land as the McFadins knew it: open, promising, and still close to the frontier.
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
- · David H. McFadin
- · Jerusha Dyches McFadin
Related events
- · Battle of San Jacinto
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
David Hutcheson McFadin
Circleville, TX
This marker honors David Hutcheson McFadin, who took up arms in the Texas War for Independence and fought as a soldier at the Battle of San Jacinto. That decisive 1836 clash, where Texian forces routed the Mexican army in less than twenty minutes, secured Texas independence and made men like McFadin part of the founding generation of the Republic. The State of Texas erected the memorial in 1962 to keep his service in public memory.
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In the winter of 1839, the young Republic of Texas was still contesting its frontier with the Comanche, whose horseback raiders ranged across the Blackland Prairie. After a retaliatory raid on area homesteads killed settlers and carried off captives, a hastily gathered militia pursued the raiders to Brushy Creek, where the fighting cost the lives of Jacob Burleson and several companions. It proved the last major clash between settlers and Native people in Williamson County.
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