Lee County
Giddings, Lee County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Located on Old San Antonio Road, on land surveyed in 1821 as part of the original colony of Moses and Stephen F. Austin. In 1854 became site of major settlement by Wend from northern Europe, led by Pastor Johann Kilian. Had only school in U. S. that taught in Wendish-- language surviving only here and in Australia, in the modern world. County was created from Bastrop, Burleson, Fayette and Washington. Organized in 1874, it was named for Robert E. Lee (1807-1870), general of the Army of Northern Virginia, in the southern Confederacy, 1862-1865. Giddings is the county seat.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Straddling the Old San Antonio Road on land first surveyed for Moses and Stephen F. Austin's colony, Lee County became in 1854 the heart of Wendish settlement in America, when Pastor Johann Kilian led his Sorbian-speaking congregation from Central Europe to a new home here. Their school was the only one in the United States to teach in Wendish, a Slavic language that survives in the modern world chiefly here and in Australia. The county was organized in 1874 and named for Confederate general Robert E. Lee, with Giddings as its seat.
Why it matters
Lee County preserves one of America's most distinctive immigrant enclaves, a Wendish community that carried a vanishing European language across the ocean and kept it alive on the Texas prairie.
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Related people
- · Johann Kilian
- · Robert E. Lee
- · Stephen F. Austin
Themes & tags
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