Robert L. Dabney House
Victoria, Victoria County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Built in the late Victorian architectural style in 1897, this house was built for Robert Lewis Dabney (1820-1898) and Margaret Lavinia Morrison (d.1908). Rev. Dabney was a Presbyterian theologian, teacher, author and confederate veteran. In 1862, he became General “Stonewall” Jackson’s chief of staff. While in Austin, Dabney taught at the University of Texas and helped establish the Austin School of Theology. Dabney and Margaret moved to Victoria in 1895 and built this house. In 1922, the home was purchased by Dr. Oscar McMullen, Victoria’s first city health officer and later the county health officer. Members of the McMullen family resided here until 2009. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark – 2014
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This late-Victorian house was built in the 1890s for Robert Lewis Dabney (1820–1898), a Presbyterian theologian, teacher, and author who had served as chief of staff to Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson in 1862. After teaching in Austin and helping establish a school of theology there, Dabney and his wife settled in Victoria and built this home. In 1922 it passed to Dr. Oscar McMullen, Victoria's first city health officer, and remained in his family for generations.
Why it matters
The house links a small Texas town to the wider currents of Civil War history and the postwar spread of education and religion across the South.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Robert Lewis Dabney
- · Margaret Lavinia Morrison
- · Oscar McMullen
- · Stonewall Jackson
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Aranama College
Goliad, TX
Founded in 1852 by the Western Presbytery of Texas, this men's college took its name from the Aranama Indians who had been converted at nearby Mission Espíritu Santo de Zúñiga. Housed in the old mission buildings and aided by funds from Goliad, it taught classical languages, mathematics, surveying, and bookkeeping. Like most of Texas's twenty-five colleges, it closed when the Civil War began in 1861 and its students marched off to the Confederate Army; the great storm of 1886 finished off its buildings.
Sidney Roper Weisiger
Victoria, TX
Sidney Roper Weisiger grew up in a pioneer Victoria County family, steeped in the region's early history. After serving as county sheriff and in the Navy during World War II, he spent his final years preserving local heritage, writing "Vignettes of Old Victoria" and "Sidney's Journal" for The Victoria Advocate from 1971 until his death in 1975. His widow Hilda later gave his research collection to Victoria College.
Victor Marion Rose
Victoria, TX
Victor Marion Rose, born in Victoria on New Year's Day 1844, wore many hats—poet, newspaper editor, soldier, and above all historian. Gathering recollections directly from Victoria's founding families, he wove those fragments into an enduring history of Victoria County before his death in 1893. His work preserved a local past that might otherwise have vanished with its first generation.
First Baptist Church of Victoria
Victoria, TX
On May 15, 1852, a small band of eight men and women—among them an enslaved person—organized the First Baptist Church of Victoria on the Texas coastal plain. In its early years the congregation shared a Methodist meeting house and later built a frame sanctuary above an Odd Fellows lodge hall. A steeple bell recovered after a storm scattered the port town of Indianola has followed the congregation through each new building since 1878.