George Alexander Pattillo
Orange, Orange County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A veteran of the War of 1812, Georgia native George Alexander Pattillo (1796-1871) migrated to this area in the early 1830s. He served on the local Committee of Correspondence created by the Convention of 1832 and on the General Council of the provisional government established by the Consultation of 1835. During the Texas Revolution of 1836, Pattillo, who had earlier received a Mexican land grant, joined with other area settlers to aid the Texas Army. Arriving at San Jacinto the day after the decisive battle, he was commissioned by Texas President David G. Burnet to direct the formation of Jefferson County, which included this area. He also became an associate justice for the new county and was a postmaster for the settlement of Pattillo's station, later the Terry community of central Orange County. In the early 1840s Pattillo served this area as a Representative and a Senator in the Republic of Texas Congress, where he actively supported annexation to the United States. In 1852 he was elected the first judge of the newly-formed Orange County. An active Masonic leader in southeast Texas, Pattillo died in 1871 and was buried in a family plot at Bunn's Bluff on the Neches River, where he had lived since 1844.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
A War of 1812 veteran born in Georgia in 1796, George Alexander Pattillo migrated to southeast Texas in the early 1830s and threw himself into the region's revolutionary politics, serving on a Committee of Correspondence and the provisional government's General Council. He aided the Texas Army during the 1836 revolution, arriving at San Jacinto the day after the battle, and was tasked by President David G. Burnet with organizing Jefferson County. He later served in the Republic of Texas Congress, championed annexation, and became Orange County's first judge in 1852.
Why it matters
Pattillo's career maps the making of a Texas county and its institutions, showing how War of 1812 veterans and revolutionary settlers built the civic scaffolding of the new republic and state.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · George Alexander Pattillo
- · David G. Burnet
Related events
- · Texas Revolution
- · Battle of San Jacinto
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
John Harmon
Orange, TX
Born in Louisiana in 1790 and a veteran of the War of 1812, John Harmon moved his family west in search of new land, settling along the Sabine River by 1826. In an extraordinary feat of frontier determination, he lashed together a massive raft of cypress logs to ferry his house, wagon, oxen, livestock, tools, and family to the site of present-day Orange on New Year's Day 1828. His arrival marked the beginning of permanent settlement there, and he went on to work as a saddler and civic leader.
Old First Orange Baptist Church
Orange, TX
Organized in 1857, this congregation is the earliest known religious body in Orange County, gathered first in a small schoolhouse near the Louisiana line. An 1865 hurricane destroyed that early meeting place, and the church rebuilt among sweet-gum groves before relocating to its present site around 1892 on land deeded by Joshua Cole. Longtime member F.A. Burton served the church for sixty-eight years until his death in 1925—and when Hurricane Rita took its sanctuary again in 2005, the congregation rebuilt once more.
Abraham Winfree
Orangefield, TX
A Louisiana native, Abraham Winfree brought his family to the Texas frontier in the early 1830s, settling on Cow Bayou near the old Opelousas Trail while Texas was still winning its independence. He made his living as rancher, cattle drover, shingle maker, and logger, and in 1836 his home hosted the election of a delegate to the Congress of the young Republic of Texas. The community that grew up around him still bears his name, though he asked to be buried without a stone in an unmarked grave.
Peyton Bland
Orange, TX
Born in Louisiana in 1815, Peyton Bland enrolled at Orange in 1835 to fight in the Texas Revolution, taking part in the Grass Fight and the siege of San Antonio before later standing guard duty during the San Jacinto campaign. He settled on a farm along Cow Bayou, raised thirteen children, ran a store, and drove cattle to market in New Orleans, cutting a physically imposing figure remembered for the pistols on his hips. When the Civil War came he enlisted again, in the Orange County Coast Guard, and afterward briefly served as a county commissioner.