Site of Fort Croghan
Burnet, Burnet County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Established by Lieut. C. H. Tyler, United States Second Dragoons, by order of the War Department, March 18, 1849, as a protection to frontier settlers against hostile Indians. Abandoned in December, 1853 as the settlements had extended farther west.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Fort Croghan was one of a line of U.S. Army posts thrown up across the Texas frontier at mid-century, established here in 1849 by Lieutenant C. H. Tyler of the Second Dragoons. Its job was to shield settlers pushing into the Hill Country from raids, and by 1853 the frontier had moved so far west that the fort was no longer needed. Its brief life traces the restless edge of American settlement in the years just after Texas joined the Union.
Why it matters
It marks a link in the chain of frontier forts that enabled—and enforced—the westward expansion of settlement across Texas at Native peoples' expense.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · C. H. Tyler
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Fort Croghan Stone Building
Burnet, TX
This stone structure is one of the eight original buildings of Fort Croghan, the U.S. Army post that guarded the Hill Country frontier from 1849 to 1853. After the soldiers left, the building served frontier "Minute Men" and local settlers, extending its usefulness well beyond its military years. It is a tangible remnant of the fortified line that once marked the western edge of American settlement.
Magill Family Cemetery
Burnet, TX
Ringed by a rock wall, this small family graveyard lies on what was the homestead of William H. Magill, a veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto who brought his family to Burnet County in 1850. He opened the cemetery in 1863 with the burial of his fifteen-year-old son John, and it holds his own grave, his second wife, and his parents, along with at least one unmarked burial.
Oatmeal Cemetery
Bertram, TX
This burial ground holds some of the earliest settlers of the Oatmeal community, with its oldest documented graves — a mother and her infant daughter — dating to 1854. Land was formally deeded for the cemetery in 1871, and it grew over the following century as an association took up its care. Among those laid to rest here are veterans of the Civil War, World War I, and World War II.
Mahomet Cemetery
Bertram, TX
With graves reaching back to the 1850s, this burial ground served the neighboring Sycamore Springs and Mahomet communities before being formally deeded to Mahomet in 1909. Hundreds rest here, including many of Burnet County's earliest settlers and veterans of American wars from the Mexican War through Vietnam. Descendants still tend the active cemetery today.