Milam
Milam, Sabine County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Founded in 1828 as Red Mound Named in 1835 for Benjamin Rush Milam. Seat of justice of Sabine Municipality, 1835; of Sabine County, 1837-58. Incorporated December 29, 1837. Internal Revenue post during the Republic Headquarters of the Quartermaster's Department, C. S. A. for Sabine County, 1861-65. First home in Texas of John S. Roberts a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. Home of John C. Hale, martyr of San Jacinto. Erected by the State of Texas 1936
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Founded in 1828 as Red Mound and renamed in 1835 for Texas Revolution hero Benjamin Rush Milam, this town served as an early seat of justice and a hub of the Republic of Texas, complete with an internal revenue post. During the Civil War it housed the Confederate quartermaster's department for Sabine County. It was the first Texas home of John S. Roberts, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, and of John C. Hale, who died at the Battle of San Jacinto.
Why it matters
Milam's layered past — revolutionary namesake, republic-era seat, and Confederate depot — makes it a compact chronicle of Texas's journey from frontier to statehood to civil war.
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Related people
- · Benjamin Rush Milam
- · John S. Roberts
- · John C. Hale
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
John C. Hale
Milam, TX
John C. Hale, born in Virginia in 1806, moved his family to Sabine County by 1835 and joined the fight for Texas independence as a first lieutenant. On April 21, 1836 the 30-year-old was one of nine Texans killed at the Battle of San Jacinto, the decisive clash that won the revolution, and he was buried with fellow casualties at the Texan campground. In recognition of his sacrifice, his heirs received 960 acres and the Legislature named Hale County in West Texas in his honor.
Milam Cemetery
Milam, TX
Milam served as the first county seat of Sabine County, on land where Spanish explorers passed as early as 1539 and where Stephen F. Austin marveled at the rich red soil in 1821. Set on a high hill above the old settlement of Red Mound, the cemetery holds military veterans dating back to the Creek War and prominent pioneer families, and may be the oldest organized burial ground in the county.
Francis Marcus Weatherred
Milam, TX
Francis Marcus Weatherred was a Virginia-born frontiersman who fought in the Creek Indian War before joining the Texas War for Independence in 1836, the year the Republic of Texas was born. Arriving in Texas in 1835, he earned the coveted status of a Citizen of the Republic, and he and his wife Nancy settled in the piney woods of Sabine County near the Louisiana line. The state honored his service with this grave marker in 1962.
Payne-Williams Cemetery
Geneva, TX
John and Margaret Payne came to Texas from Georgia about 1835, and John—a War of 1812 veteran—served Sabine County as a justice of the peace and state legislator. He set aside land for this family cemetery, where his son Epperson Duke Payne, a veteran of the Siege of Bexar and the Battle of San Jacinto, is also buried. Later interments include Civil War veteran Lewis Williams and his kin.