Hamilton County
Hamilton, Hamilton County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Created February 2, 1842 from Montgomery and Houston counties; recreated January 22, 1858, organized August 2, 1858. Named in honor of General James Hamilton, 1786-1857. Lawyer and Governor of South Carolina; appointed diplomatic agent to Europe by President Lamar. Hamilton, the county seat.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Hamilton County was first created in 1842 from Montgomery and Houston counties, then recreated in 1858 and organized that August as central Texas filled with settlers. It honors General James Hamilton, a lawyer and governor of South Carolina whom President Mirabeau Lamar named the Republic of Texas's diplomatic agent to Europe. The town of Hamilton became its county seat.
Why it matters
The county's naming reflects the young Republic of Texas courting foreign recognition and drawing on allies from across the American South.
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Related people
- · James Hamilton
- · Mirabeau B. Lamar
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Frederick B. Gentry
Hamilton, TX
Frederick B. Gentry served as a soldier in the Texas War for Independence in 1836, the fight that won the Republic of Texas its freedom from Mexico. He later commanded a frontier Minuteman company, part of the citizen defenders who guarded exposed settlements against raids. The State of Texas erected this marker in his honor in 1962.
Presbyterian Church
Hamilton, TX
Organized in September 1880 by traveling evangelist John A. McMurray, this Presbyterian congregation built the first frame church in Hamilton, a young Central Texas town. Generous with its space, the church hosted other faiths on Sunday evenings for years. In 1947 the original 1880s building was moved intact from South College Avenue and incorporated into a new structure.
Hamilton County Courthouse
Hamilton, TX
Before this limestone courthouse, Hamilton County justice was dispensed in stores, a livery stable, a two-story building, and even briefly a saloon, with fire destroying two early improvised courthouses. Outlaws were so common that guards were hired to protect visiting judges. The county's first permanent courthouse of 1878 burned in 1886; this 1887 replacement, built of native limestone quarried two miles east of town, stood unchanged until a 1931 remodeling.
United Methodist Church
Hamilton, TX
Settlers organized this Methodist congregation in the 1850s on the still-dangerous central Texas frontier, where circuit-riding ministers of the Waco circuit braved Indian raids to reach their scattered flocks. One 1871 raid stole a member's horse at Indian Creek, forcing him to walk twelve miles to Brownwood. After worshipping in various places, the congregation built a frame church here around 1887, replaced by the present structure in 1924.