Shackelford County
Albany, Shackelford County, Texas
Marker Inscription
First inhabited by nomadic Indian tribes, Shackelford County was created in 1858 and named for Dr. John Shackelford (1790-1857). The first permanent Anglo-American settlers in this area included, J. C. Lynch (1828-1912), a native of Ireland who moved here in 1858; W. H. Ledbetter (1833-84), who arrived in 1859 and later started the Ledbetter Salt Works; T. E. Jackson (b. 1820), a merchant who settled in the northern part of the county before 1860; and G. W. Greer (1812-93), who operated a stage station on Hubbard Creek after 1861. During the Civil War (1861-65), settlers took refuge at "family forts" such as Fort Mugginsville and Fort Hubbard. They gained military protection from frontier perils when the U.S. Army established Fort Griffin in 1867. Griffin, the lawless settlement that grew up around the fort, attracted buffalo hide hunters and cattlemen driving herds up the western cattle trail. Shackelford County was organized September 12, 1874, with Fort Griffin as temporary county seat. Albany was chosen permanent county seat in November 1874. The county's population increased sharply after the arrival of the Texas Central Railroad in 1881. Petroleum production generated an economic boom, 1910-30. Chief industries today (1976) are petroleum and ranching. (1976)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Created in 1858 on land roamed by nomadic Indian tribes, Shackelford County took its name from a physician of the Texas Revolution. Its first Anglo settlers arrived on the eve of the Civil War, sheltering during the fighting in 'family forts' until the U.S. Army built Fort Griffin in 1867. The rough town of Griffin that grew around the post drew buffalo hunters and trail drivers on the Western Cattle Trail before the railroad arrived in 1881 and, later, an oil boom transformed the county's economy.
Why it matters
Shackelford County's arc—from frontier forts to cattle trails to oil derricks—compresses the whole 19th-century settlement of West Texas into a single county's history.
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Related people
- · John Shackelford
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Ledbetter Picket House
Albany, TX
Georgia-born William Henry Ledbetter came to Texas in 1858 and built a salt works on Hubbard Creek during the Civil War, weathering raids on the exposed western frontier before relocating nearer the protection of Fort Griffin. In the mid-1870s he raised this picket house — walls of upright timbers set in the ground — a construction method common on a frontier short on sawn lumber. Ledbetter served as Shackelford County's first county judge, and the city of Albany moved and restored his home in 1953.
Family Forts, C.S.A.
Albany, TX
During the Civil War, with most able-bodied men away in Confederate service, the scattered families of the Texas frontier faced raids with little military protection. Encouraged by authorities, they "forted up" — crowding into hastily built stockades of dirt-floored log cabins linked by pickets, with a blockhouse for women and children during attacks. The best known nearby was Fort Davis on the Clear Fork of the Brazos, where some 120 people endured the war's last year on little food and long distances from help, yet still managed schooling, weddings, and worship.
Frontier Town of Fort Griffin
Albany, TX
After the Civil War the U.S. Army built Fort Griffin above the Clear Fork of the Brazos in 1867, and a raucous town called "The Flat" sprang up below it. A stop on the buffalo-hide trade and the Western cattle trail, it drew merchants and soldiers alongside gamblers and gunfighters—Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp, Lottie Deno, and Big Nose Kate among them. When Albany won the county seat and the railroad, the town faded, though remnants lingered into the mid-20th century.
8.6 Miles South to Fort Phantom Hill
Anson vicinity, TX
Established by the U.S. Army in 1851, Fort Phantom Hill was one of a chain of frontier posts meant to shield settlers pushing into West Texas. Its regular garrison lasted only until 1854, when the fort was abandoned and burned, but the site kept serving the frontier—as a stop on the Southern Overland Mail, a sub-post of Fort Griffin, and even a temporary county seat.