Katy Holland McDowell Treadwell Cobb
Iola, Grimes County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1822, at the age of seven, Katy Holland migrated to Texas with her parents as a member of Stephen F. Austin's "Old 300" Colony. Her life reflects the harshness of frontier life in Texas. Twice widowed before her marriage to William Cobb in the 1840s, she was the mother of five children. Her first husband, Mill McDowell, was also a member of Austin's Colony, and a cousin, Tapley Holland, was killed at the Alamo.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Katy Holland came to Texas in 1822 as a seven-year-old, part of Stephen F. Austin's celebrated "Old 300" colony of Anglo settlers. Her life laid bare the brutality of the frontier: twice widowed before she married William Cobb in the 1840s, she raised five children through hardship and loss. Her first husband was himself an Austin colonist, and her cousin Tapley Holland died at the Alamo.
Why it matters
Her story puts a woman at the center of Texas's founding generation, a reminder that the colonization and revolution were lived and endured by families, not just the men whose names fill the histories.
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Related people
- · Katy Holland Cobb
- · Tapley Holland
- · Mill McDowell
- · William Cobb
Related events
- · Austin's Old 300 Colony
- · Battle of the Alamo
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Grimes County Bethel Cemetery
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During the Republic of Texas years, settlers gathered here to form the Bethel community, and the burial of a smallpox victim in 1843 began what became Bethel Cemetery. Among those resting here is Sarah Bradley Dodson, remembered as the 'Betsy Ross of Texas,' whose 1835 Lone Star flag flew over Washington-on-the-Brazos at the signing of the Texas Declaration of Independence. Her husband Archelaus later deeded the ground to a Presbyterian congregation, and in 1904 an adjacent section opened for the area's African American residents.
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Zion Cemetery grew from a log-cabin church and school that Methodist settlers established in Grimes County in 1852, when the first graves were laid among the trees. It holds early pioneers of the area, including Katy Holland McDowell Treadwell Cobb, a member of Stephen F. Austin's original Old Three Hundred colonists, along with victims of the 1867 yellow fever epidemic and veterans of every war from the Civil War through Vietnam. Managed today by a cemetery association, it remains tied to the Zion United Methodist Church in nearby Iola.
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