Fort Gates
Gatesville, Coryell County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In the mid-1800s, Native tribes often met westward Anglo expansion in Texas with hostilities along the frontier line. To shield settlers form potential attack, the U.S. Army established a static line of outposts form the Rio Grande northward to the Red River. Few early settlements existed in this vast, unprotected area created from the Milam Land District (formerly Robertson’s Colony). After the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), Fort Gates, the last of a cordon of stockaded fortifications across Texas at the time, was established to defend area settlers. The U.S. Army erected the post, named for Mexican-American War veteran Maj. Collinson Reed Gates of the 4th U.S. Infantry, about five miles southeast of present day Gatesville on Oct. 26, 1849. Four companies of the 8th U.S. Infantry Regiment manned Fort Gates’ 17 buildings. Very soon after the garrison was established, many of the families in upper Milam County moved here. As a result, the post served as the nucleus for the settlement of the surrounding area. The post ably performed in lessening the threat of attacks from Native tribes. With its primary objective accomplished, the U.S. Army transferred the garrison to Fort Phantom Hill (Jones County) in March 1852 and officially closed Fort Gates in February 1853. In 1853, O.T. Tyler, an early Fort Gates settler, began to organize a county government. Settlers convened and signed a petition to the Texas House of Representatives, and on February 4, 1854, Gov. Elisha M. Pease signed legislation creating Coryell County. Fort Gates served as the county seat until May 27, 1854, when the county clerk transferred archives to Gatesville, the new seat of government. (2006)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
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.
Why it matters
Fort Gates shows how the Army's frontier forts did more than defend, they anchored settlement, seeding the towns and counties that followed in their shadow.
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Related people
- · Maj. Collinson Reed Gates
- · O.T. Tyler
Related events
- · Establishment of Fort Gates (1849)
- · Creation of Coryell County (1854)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Pleasant Grove Cemetery
Coryell County, TX
After Fort Gates closed in 1853, soldiers like Irish-born Hugh Sheridan and families such as the Browns and Powells settled the Leon River lowlands and named their community for its groves of post oak. They built a school district, held farmers' union meetings and a Democratic club, and buried their dead in ground Walter Worthington deeded in 1899 "to be used...as a graveyard forever." The graves range from an 1867 burial to veterans of every war from the Civil War through World War II.
Coryell County
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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.
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Ater Cemetery
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