Peter Hansbrough Bell
Belton, Bell County, Texas
Marker Inscription
1812 - 1898. (right panel) Fought at San Jacinto April 21, 1836. Assistant Inspector General and Inspector General of the Texas Army 1837-1839. Captain of Texas Rangers and Lieutenant Colonel of Mounted Volunteers in the Mexican War 1845-1846. Colonel of a Texas Volunteer Regiment 1848-1849. (left panel) Governor of Texas November 5, 1849 to November 23, 1853. United States Congressman from Texas 1853-1857. He fought bravely to establish the Republic and with tact and skill he helped to steer the ship of state through the troubled waters of its early years. (back panel) Erected by the State of Texas 1936 with funds appropriated by the federal government to commemorate one hundred years of Texas Independence
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Peter Hansbrough Bell's life reads like a roll call of the Texas frontier's founding decades. He charged with Sam Houston's army at San Jacinto in 1836, rode with the Texas Rangers and mounted volunteers through the Mexican War, then traded the saddle for the statehouse as Texas's third governor before serving in the U.S. Congress. This granite monument was raised by the state in 1936, the centennial of Texas independence, to honor a man who helped both win and govern the young republic.
Why it matters
Bell embodies the transformation of Texas from revolutionary republic to American state, a passage that reshaped the map and politics of the whole Southwest.
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Related people
- · Peter Hansbrough Bell
- · Sam Houston
Related events
- · Battle of San Jacinto
- · Mexican War
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Bell County Courthouses
Belton, TX
Three successive courthouses have stood on this square since Bell County was organized in 1850, on land donated by Matilda F. Connell Allen for the county seat. Before any courthouse existed, the county's first business was conducted in John Danley's blacksmith shop, where his anvil served as the council table. A modest $199 frame building of 1851 gave way to a limestone courthouse in 1859 whose cost so angered voters that every commissioner was turned out of office, and a grander third courthouse followed in 1885.
Bell County Courthouse
Belton, TX
Designed by Jasper N. Preston & Son of Austin and built in 1885, the Bell County Courthouse rose in Renaissance Revival style with arched passageways, a columned clock tower, and rusticated limestone. Its original tower was removed in the 1950s but faithfully rebuilt in 1999 from historic photographs. The building's style echoes through downtown Belton, much of which was rebuilt after an 1889 fire.
William Whitaker Reed
Belton, TX
William Whitaker Reed came to Texas from Tennessee in 1833 and joined Robertson's colony, taking land along the Little River just as the Texas Revolution swept the region. His family fled in the 'Runaway Scrape,' and he and his brother enlisted in the Republic of Texas Army, helping bury the remains of Fannin's men massacred at Goliad. Settling permanently after the war, Reed helped organize Bell County in 1850 and served as its first sheriff.
Site of Early Belton House
Belton, TX
In 1850 the widow Sarah Lawler, Tennessee-born and in Texas since 1837, put up a large shed-like building here to board the workmen surveying and building Nolanville—soon renamed Belton—as seat of the newly created Bell County. Amid tents, brush arbors, and log shanties, settlers moved in before the town was even fully laid out. After her husband Eli's death in 1838, Sarah had supported her family by taking in boarders, helping pioneer the county's growth.