James and Calpernia Mitchell
Midway, Madison County, Texas
Marker Inscription
James (1795-1870) and Calpernia (Franklin) (1805-1865) Mitchell came to Texas from Virginia in 1833 and received a Mexican land grant. In 1837 James served as a member of the commission to locate the seat of the newly formed Montgomery County; in 1846, when Walker County was formed, he became one of the first county commissioners. The Mitchell House and Inn of the Old San Antonio Road provided rest for weary travelers and served as an area post office from about 1840 to 1850. The parents of Edwin, Thomas, James, Nathan, and Anthony Wayne, Calpernia and James were interred in the family cemetery near this site. (1998)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
James and Calpernia Mitchell left Virginia for Texas in 1833 and settled on a Mexican land grant during the years when Texas was passing from Mexican province to independent republic to statehood. James helped locate the seat of Montgomery County in 1837 and became one of Walker County's first commissioners in 1846, while the family's house and inn on the Old San Antonio Road offered rest to travelers and served for a decade as the area post office. The couple lie in a family cemetery near this spot.
Why it matters
The Mitchells embody the first generation of Anglo settlers who built the civic scaffolding of early Texas, and their roadside inn marks a link in the Old San Antonio Road that carried the frontier westward.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · James Mitchell
- · Calpernia Franklin Mitchell
Related events
- · Formation of Walker County (1846)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Robbins Ferry
Midway, TX
Where the San Antonio and La Bahia roads met the Trinity River, travelers once forded a spot called Paso Tomas. About 1821 Joel Leakey established a ferry here, and it took its lasting name from Nathaniel Robbins, who ran it for years. The Clapp family acquired the crossing around 1852 and operated it until a bridge finally replaced the ferry in 1930.
Rogers Prairie
Normangee, TX
Along the historic Old San Antonio Road, Robert Rogers settled this Leon County prairie in 1835 on a grant from the Mexican government, and a community grew up around him with a church, school, post office, Masonic lodge, and stores. When the railroad bypassed the town in 1906, residents picked it up and moved it 1.6 miles west, renaming it Normangee. Only a cemetery now marks the original site.
Town of Bedias
Bedias, TX
Long before Anglo settlers arrived, the Bidai people—an agricultural nation regarded as the region's oldest inhabitants—gave their name to the Bedias creeks and, eventually, the town. The first white settlement here rose in 1835 under Thomas P. Plaster, and in 1903 the coming of an International & Great Northern Railroad branch pulled the population toward a 'New' Bedias, though residents fought to keep the old name rather than honor a railroad official. The area is also famous for its 'Bediasite' tektites, glassy stones the Indians called 'jewels of the moon,' and as the one-time home of Sarah Dodson, credited with sewing the first Lone Star flag.
El Camino Real
Normangee, TX
The Camino Real—the Old San Antonio Road—was first blazed in 1691 by Domingo Terán de los Ríos, first provincial governor of Texas, guiding a mission expedition with Father Damián Massanet from the Rio Grande across a chain of rivers to the missions of East Texas. Generations of explorers, soldiers, and settlers followed the same route, among them Moses Austin in 1820, and the Republic of Texas later made the road a boundary for its land grants. This 1936 centennial marker honors that ancient highway of empires.