Gatesville
Gatesville, Coryell County, Texas
Marker Inscription
County seat of Coryell County, Gatesville began in 1854 after the county was created. Richared Grant, an Indian trader and local landowner, donated the townsite. It was named for Old Fort Gates (1849-1852), which had been established 5 miles east for Indian protection. The Fort, named for U.S. Army major G. R. Gates, was the first settlement in the county. For a few months Fort Gates served as county seat, but then Gatesville was chosen. The County's first mail line--from Gatesville to Belton--was set up in 1855. The town grew slowly at first, suffering from intermittent Indian raids, but the period from 1870 to 1882 saw great progress. In 1870 the town was incorporated and in 1872 a courthouse was built. When St. Louis & Southwestern railroad ran a spur line to Gatesville in 1882, the citizens held a gala welcoming celebration. With the railroad came prosperity and many new homes and businesses. A fine opera house, frontier symbol of culture, was erected and numerous civic improvements were initiated. Today the town is the home of the Gatesville and Mountain View State schools for boys. The economy of the area is based on ranching and agriculture.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Gatesville became the seat of newly created Coryell County in 1854, on a townsite donated by Indian trader Richard Grant and named for the nearby Old Fort Gates (1849–1852), a post established for protection against Native raids. The town grew slowly amid intermittent raids until a period of strong progress from 1870 to 1882, capped when the St. Louis & Southwestern railroad ran a spur line in 1882 to a jubilant public welcome. With the railroad came new homes, businesses, and even a frontier opera house.
Why it matters
Gatesville's rise from a fort on a dangerous frontier to a railroad county seat traces the familiar path by which the U.S. Army, land grants, and the railroad together settled central Texas.
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Related people
- · Richard Grant
- · G.R. Gates
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Fort Gates
Gatesville, TX
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.
Coryell County
Gatesville, TX
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.
Grubb, Wiley Parker (1846 - 1918)
Ireland, TX
Born in Walker County in 1846, Wiley Parker Grubb joined the Texas Rangers as a teenager in 1863 and was wounded at the 1865 Battle of Dove Creek, a bloody clash with Kickapoo people near present San Angelo. He later married, bought family land in Coryell County in 1874, and built a prominent ranch, his gravesite becoming a small public cemetery in 1937. His life spanned the frontier's ranging and its settling.
Crawford
Crawford, TX
Crawford took root in the 1850s near Tonk Crossing, in country the Tonkawa had long ranged, at the meeting of two frontier trade routes. When the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad bypassed the original townsite in 1881, residents simply picked up and moved to the new line, and the relocated town flourished with churches, a cotton gin, and a grain mill before incorporating in 1897. For most of the twentieth century it was a quiet agricultural center—until 1999, when George W. Bush bought a nearby ranch that his 2000 election turned into the "Western White House."