Early Settlers of Eastland County
Eastland, Eastland County, Texas
Marker Inscription
First known Eastland area inhabitant was Frank Sanchez (d. 1867), who grazed herds here in the 1850s. The United States in 1853 established Army posts at Fort Phantom Hill, in present Taylor County, and Fort Belknap, in present Young County, giving the frontier protection against hostile Indians. This opened a modest influx of settlers, including families named Bell, Birden, Birt, Blair, Ellison, Fitzwaters, Flannagan, Gilbert, Herring, Highsaw, McGough, Mansker, Melburn, Oliver, Owens, Richards, Shirley, Singleton, Upton, and Wyatt, from "old states" of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North and South Carolina, and Tennessee. The county was created, but not organized, in 1858. The U.S. Census for 1860 showed 99 residents. When Texas seceded from the Union in 1861, and Army garrisons withdrew, many pioneers left or took refuge at Blair's Fort, in southeastern part of the county. Post-Civil War settlers included such leaders as Dr. Edwin Daniel Townsend, who arrived from Kentucky in 1871. The county was organized in an election held Dec. 2, 1873, with Merriman designated county seat (in violation of legislation creating the county). In 1875 the government was moved to Eastland, founded that year by investor Charles U. Connellee (1851-1930). (1972)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Cattle grazed the Eastland County grasslands in the 1850s, and the U.S. Army's frontier forts drew a first trickle of families from the older Southern states. The Civil War emptied the region when the garrisons withdrew and settlers fled to fortified refuges like Blair's Fort, but pioneers returned afterward and organized the county in 1873. A contested county-seat fight moved the government from Merriman to the newly founded town of Eastland in 1875.
Why it matters
The marker captures the fragile rhythm of Texas frontier settlement — advance under Army protection, retreat during wartime, and renewed westward expansion afterward — that shaped scores of North Texas counties.
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Related people
- · Frank Sanchez
- · Charles U. Connellee
Related events
- · Texas secession, 1861
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Eastland
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Eastland took its name from William M. Eastland, a hero of the Texas War for Independence executed in the infamous 1842 "Black Bean" lottery after the Mier Expedition. Comanches long resisted settlement here, with the county's last recorded raid in 1874, and the town became county seat in 1875. A 1917 oil strike touched off one of Texas's fabled booms that swelled the population toward 25,000 and drew celebrities — and in 1928 the town made worldwide news when "Old Rip," a horned toad sealed in the old courthouse cornerstone in 1897, was found alive.
Alameda Cemetery
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This burial ground began when pioneer William Mansker set aside part of his land for a school and community cemetery in the mid-19th century, serving Anglo settlers drawn together by the hardships of frontier Texas. Family clusters like the four Bell children who died in 1877, graves marked only by fieldstones, and the interment of veterans of several wars all testify to the precarious lives of those who built the Alameda community.
Ellison Family Graveyard
Gorman vicinity, TX
James Madison Ellison built the first cabin in this part of Eastland County in 1858 and was permanently disabled defending frontier homes in a militia company against Indian raids. He opened this graveyard after his mother—a Georgia-born midwife—died in 1876, and though meant for family, it always welcomed neighbors and strangers, including an unknown child from a westering family who died on his land. Twenty-six graves rest here, and after prospering in the county's 1918 oil boom and moving south, Ellison too was brought back to lie among them.
Ellison Springs
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