Hillary Mercer Crabb
Huntsville, Walker County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Georgia native Hillary Mercer Crabb, a veteran of the militia in his home state, moved his family to the Mexican state of Texas in 1830. While awaiting a land grant they settled in the Sabine District. From there Crabb joined the Texas militia and served in such action as the 1832 Battle of Nacogdoches. In 1835 he was granted property at this site. The rural community that developed around his homesite (400 yds. W) became known as Crabb's Prairie. Crabb was instrumental in the early development of Huntsville and Walker County. A leader in civic and social activities, he became the first probate judge when the county was created in 1846. He also served as a justice of the peace and chief justice (county judge). In 1852 he was elected to serve the unexpired term of State Representative F. L. Hatch. Among Crabb's accomplishments as a legislator was the introduction of a bill to create Madison County. Opposed to secession, Crabb moved to Lavaca County at the outbreak of the Civil War. He later moved to Madison County, where he served as sheriff. His influence as a prominent landowner, church leader, Mason and public servant had a dramatic impact on the early growth of this area.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Hillary Mercer Crabb came to Mexican Texas in 1830, part of the wave of Anglo-American settlers who took land grants along the Sabine before Texas won its independence. He fought in the Texas militia, including the 1832 Battle of Nacogdoches, and the farming community that grew around his homestead became known as Crabb's Prairie. When Walker County was organized in 1846 he became its first probate judge, and later served as a legislator who introduced the bill creating Madison County. A committed Unionist, he left the area rather than support secession in 1861.
Why it matters
Crabb's life traces the arc of frontier Texas — from Mexican land grant to statehood to the wrenching choices of the Civil War — showing how a single settler could help build the civic institutions of a whole county.
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Related people
- · Hillary Mercer Crabb
Related events
- · Battle of Nacogdoches (1832)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Eastham-Thomason House
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Gibbs-Powell House
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First United Methodist Church of Huntsville
Huntsville, TX
Methodism reached Huntsville in the 1840s through circuit-riding preachers before the young Texas Methodist Conference assigned a resident pastor in 1842. The congregation worshiped without a permanent building for years, finally raising its first sanctuary in the 1850s and rebuilding repeatedly as the town grew and fire twice took the structure. Each rebuilding — culminating in the 1913 church — traces the deepening roots of an East Texas town settled in the Republic era.
Walker County
Huntsville, TX
Carved from Montgomery County in 1846, Walker County was first named for U.S. Senator Robert J. Walker, then rededicated to honor Samuel H. Walker, the Texas Ranger and Mexican War hero. Its seat, Huntsville, began as an Indian trading post and got its first courthouse in 1848; after fire destroyed a later one, the present courthouse rose in 1888. Today the county holds part of the Sam Houston National Forest and is home to Sam Houston State College, the oldest state-supported college in Texas.