Reed's Lake
Rogers vicinity, Bell County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Earliest settlement in Bell County; founded 1834 by men of the Sterling Robertson colony. Named for family of John Burnett Reed, who in 1859 built near here his large house that is still in use; also put in cotton gin, and gave sites for a school and cemetery. (1967)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Founded in 1834 by settlers of the Sterling Robertson colony, Reed's Lake was the earliest settlement in Bell County, established while Texas was still part of Mexico. It took its name from the family of John Burnett Reed, who in 1859 built a large house that still stands, added a cotton gin, and donated land for a school and cemetery. The settlement anchored the surrounding countryside as Anglo colonization pushed into central Texas.
Why it matters
As the county's first settlement, it marks the leading edge of the empresario colonization that opened central Texas to American settlers in the 1830s.
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Related people
- · John Burnett Reed
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
City of Rogers
Rogers, TX
Founded in 1881 and named for Santa Fe Railroad official John D. Rogers, this Bell County town rode the great Central Texas cotton boom. Within a few years it had a post office and stores, and at its peak boasted schools, churches, a newspaper, three banks, and six cotton gins. Among its native sons were four Bell County sheriffs, including the county's first, William Reed.
Site of Dulaney's Mill
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John Thornton Dulaney left Virginia in 1849 to chase the California gold rush, then settled in Bell County, Texas, where after the Civil War he built a bustling farm complex around a grist mill, cotton gin, store, and blacksmith shop. A tinkerer by nature, he machined his own mill parts and often fed 35 people a day, including his millhands. His enterprise anchored the neighborhood—complete with a church and school he built—until it wound down around 1912.
Bell County
Belton vicinity, TX
Settlement along the Lampasas River began in 1847, and Bell County was created in 1850, taking its name from Peter Hansbrough Bell—a San Jacinto veteran, Mexican War officer, and governor of Texas. The county seat soon moved from Nolanville to Belton, and by 1860 nearly 4,800 people lived there. When the Civil War came, the county sent a dozen troop companies and supplied its cause with flour mills, a hat factory, tanneries, and workshops.
Ele B. Baggett Home
Belton, TX
Ele Bright Baggett and his wife Mary Carolyn began this ornate Queen Anne house in 1892, its gable sunbursts and fish-scale shingles announcing the prosperity of a Bell County cattle family. Ele, his brother, and their father had come home from the Civil War to drive great herds north to the railheads of Kansas and Montana, and Ele parlayed the profits into land, cotton gins, and banking. His father Silas had been among Belton's founders, and the family home stood just across the street.