HistoricSiteMarkers
Early Republic

In Memory of Robert Jones Rivers

Georgetown, Williamson County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Pioneer patriot, lawyer and orator. Born in Virginia in 1806. Died in Georgetown, December 14, 1854. His eloquence protected the helpless, his wit charmed all. Erected by the State of Texas 1936

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Robert Jones Rivers came from Virginia to the young Texas frontier, where he won a reputation as a lawyer and gifted orator before his death at Georgetown in 1854. Remembered as a defender of the helpless whose eloquence charmed all, he was honored by the State of Texas with this marker in 1936. His life fell in the formative decades of the Republic and early statehood.

Why it matters

It commemorates one of the pioneer public men whose talents helped establish civic and legal life in early Texas.

Own a business near here? Add it to the map.

Related people

  • ยท Robert Jones Rivers

Themes & tags

Westward ExpansionFrontier HistoryMemorial

Nearby & related markers

Judge Greenleaf Fisk

Georgetown, TX

Greenleaf Fisk left a New York minister's household for the Texas frontier, arriving in Bastrop in 1834 and fighting in the decisive Battle of San Jacinto in 1836. He served in the Republic of Texas Senate and, when Williamson County was organized in 1848, became its first chief justice, reportedly walking a dozen miles to hold court. A surveyor whose name marks countless land records, he later helped found Brownwood.

Lesesne-Stone Building

Georgetown, TX

In the 1880s Georgetown was a growing Central Texas county seat, and its limestone commercial blocks reflected a new prosperity. This Italianate storefront, raised in 1884, housed a drugstore that served townsfolk for three-quarters of a century, passing from Sanders & Lesesne to the long-running Stone's pharmacy. Its arched windows and pressed-metal cornice mark the era's confident Main Street architecture.

Old Dimmitt Building

Georgetown, TX

Erected in 1901 as a hotel, the Dimmitt Building rose just as Georgetown settled into a prosperous county-seat town. Over the decades it reinvented itself again and again, serving as mercantile stores, the town's first movie house, an auto dealership, a drugstore, a dental office, and a bus depot. A 1960 remodeling preserved its native-stone Spanish arches, columns, and turrets.