Mason County
Mason vicinity, Mason County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Created January 22, 1858, and organized August 2, 1858, this county was named for its most important settlement, Fort Mason. Garrisoned intermittently from July 6, 1851, to March 23, 1869, Fort Mason was named for Lt. G. T. Mason of the United States 2nd Dragoons, killed in Mexican War action on April 25, 1846, near Brownsville. Fort Mason was one of a chain of posts situated a day's horseback ride apart, from Red River to the Rio Grande, for protecting frontier against Apaches, Comanches, other Indians. (1971)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Created and organized in 1858, Mason County took its name from Fort Mason, the frontier post garrisoned on and off from 1851 to 1869. The fort honored Lt. G. T. Mason of the U.S. 2nd Dragoons, killed near Brownsville in 1846. It was one link in a chain of Army posts spaced a day's ride apart from the Red River to the Rio Grande, built to shield settlers from Apache and Comanche raids.
Why it matters
Fort Mason represents the federal military presence that made Anglo settlement of the Texas frontier possible, one post in a line drawn across the edge of the plains.
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Related people
- · G. T. Mason
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Soldier's Waterhole
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This waterhole on an old military road served U.S. soldiers — including troops under Robert E. Lee — who patrolled for raiders in the 1850s, as well as westbound emigrants camping before the Civil War. The marker records a grim toll: in 1850 a party of eighteen men, women, and children was attacked here, their wagons burned and horses stolen. Long before, the same reliable water had drawn Native peoples to what was noted as an ancient Indian campground.
Kimble County
Junction, TX
This hill country along the Llano was home to Jumano and Apache peoples when Spanish explorers passed through in the 1600s and 1700s, before the Comanche came to dominate the region by the mid-1800s. Frontier forts and the Texas Rangers guarded the area as Anglo settlement pushed westward, and the county was organized in 1876, named for an Alamo defender. Long troubled by outlaws until the Rangers restored order in the 1880s, it settled into a livelihood of sheep and goat ranching for wool and mohair.
Fort Mason, Site of
Mason, TX
The U.S. Army established Fort Mason on July 6, 1851, to shield the Texas frontier, naming it for Lt. George T. Mason, who had been killed near Brownsville in the war with Mexico. Between 1856 and 1861 it hosted officers of the famed 2nd U.S. Cavalry — Albert Sidney Johnston, George H. Thomas, Earl Van Dorn, and Robert E. Lee — many of whom would win fame or infamy in the coming Civil War. Federal troops abandoned the post in March 1861 and returned only after the war, garrisoning it until 1869.
Fort Mason and Camp Llano, C.S.A.
Mason, TX
When Texas seceded, Fort Mason and the newly established Camp Llano became links in a Confederate line of frontier posts, spaced a day's ride apart from the Red River to the Rio Grande. Occupied first by the First Regiment Texas Mounted Rifles and then the Frontier Regiment, these troops guarded scattered settlers against raids while the war raged elsewhere. Locals took shelter at Fort Mason, and even a lone mail carrier crept between the posts by night, dodging raiders to keep the mail moving.