Jeff Hamilton
Belton, Bell County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Jeff Hamilton (d. April 3, 1941) A Kentucky-born slave who was brought to Texas as a child, Jeff Hamilton became San Houston's personal servant, companion of his young sons, and a trusted member of his household. Hamilton served Houston while he was governor, 1859-1861, and until his death in 1863. Later Hamilton worked for many years as the custodian of Mary Hardin-Baylor College. A resident of the Temple-Belton area of over 50 years, he was married and had eleven children. Recorded - 1976
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Born into slavery in Kentucky and brought to Texas as a child, Jeff Hamilton became the enslaved personal servant and companion in the household of Sam Houston, the revolutionary general and Texas statesman, serving through Houston's governorship and until Houston's death in 1863. Freed by emancipation, Hamilton spent more than fifty years in the Belton area and worked for decades as custodian of Mary Hardin-Baylor College. His remembered life offers a rare, intimate window onto one of Texas's most famous households from the vantage of the man enslaved within it.
Why it matters
Hamilton's story insists that the enslaved people beside famous white leaders had names, families, and long lives of their own—histories too often erased from the record.
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Related people
- · Jeff Hamilton
- · Sam Houston
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
African American Education in Belton
Belton, TX
Public education for Black students in Belton dates to 1882, when Mrs. Aleck McGee was hired "to teach the colored school." In 1890 Fisk University graduate Thomas Breckenridge Harris became the first instructor of the African American high school, and in 1936 a new building rose on this site for students of all grades, named T. W. Harris in his honor. The last class graduated in 1966, and Belton's schools integrated the following year.
Jeff Hamilton
Belton, TX
Born into slavery in Kentucky, Jeff Hamilton was a child when Sam Houston reportedly bought him at auction to spare him a cruel master, and he became Houston's personal servant during the governor's final years, standing at his bedside when he died in 1863. In freedom, Hamilton worked as custodian for Baylor Female College, following the school to Belton in 1886. Late in a long life that reached to 1941, he was honored by many groups for his firsthand link to Houston's era.
Cora Anderson Negro Hospital
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Opened in May 1953, the Cora Anderson Negro Hospital gave Temple's growing African American community access to modern medical care just two blocks from Scott & White, which had previously been denied to them. Governed by an advisory board with equal Black and white membership and supported by donors including trustee Lyndon B. Johnson, the hospital was named for its largest individual donor, Cora Woods Campbell Anderson. It served until December 1963, when Scott & White integrated its facilities, and the building continues today as a public health clinic.
Greathouse Cemetery
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The Rev. Early Greathouse, a Georgia-ordained minister who had served in Alabama's government, brought his family to Bell County in 1870, built the area's first cotton gin, and organized its early Baptist churches. Around 1871 he set aside land for this burial ground, which grew from a family plot into a community cemetery. Among those laid to rest here are former slaves who came to Texas with the Greathouse family, a survivor of the Battle of San Jacinto, and veterans of the Civil War and both World Wars.