Site of Owensville
Owensville, Robertson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Robertson County's third county seat was located here, 1855-69, on land given by D. H. Love (1816-66). The town was Owensville, named for Harrison Owen (1803-96), who was the first county clerk, 1838-47. Public officials, doctors, lawyers, businesses moved here and town thrived. It was on Houston-Waco mail, stage, and freighting road. As Civil War (1861-65) county seat, this place armed and dispatched soldiers, and cared for civilians. After Houston & Texas Central Railway bypassed Owensville in 1868, county records were moved to Calvert. Owensville Cemetery, oldest in county, marks townsite.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Owensville served as Robertson County's third county seat from 1855 to 1869, on land donated by D. H. Love and named for pioneer county clerk Harrison Owen. Sitting on the Houston-to-Waco mail, stage, and freighting road, the town drew officials, doctors, lawyers, and merchants, and during the Civil War it armed and dispatched soldiers. When the Houston & Texas Central Railway bypassed it in 1868, the county records moved to Calvert and the town faded, leaving only its cemetery to mark the site.
Why it matters
Owensville is a textbook Texas ghost town, thriving as a county seat until the railroad chose another route and the community simply melted away.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Harrison Owen
- · D. H. Love
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Robertson County Courthouse
Franklin, TX
This white limestone courthouse, raised in 1882 for $30,000, was the fourth to serve Robertson County — and it stood in a town that owed both its location and its name to the railroad. When the county seat moved to the International & Great Northern line in 1879, the new town of Morgan had to be renamed Franklin to avoid duplicating an existing Texas post office. Architect F. E. Ruffini drew the plans that same era.
Robertson County
Franklin, TX
Robertson County grew from an 1822 colonization contract held by Sterling Clack Robertson, who recruited settlers from Tennessee and later signed the Texas Declaration of Independence. Created in 1837 and organized in 1838, the county shuffled its seat among a half-dozen towns before settling on Franklin in 1879. During the Civil War it sent five companies into Confederate service and turned its mills toward making cloth, flour, and supplies for soldiers' families.
Virginia Field Park
Calvert, TX
This Central Texas park began as railroad land given to Calvert in 1868, but its ground had already seen the Civil War's end, when a company of Hood's famed Texas Brigade mustered nearby in 1865. During Reconstruction it held the curious "Sky Parlor," a room built atop a pole to jail Southern sympathizers, and by the 1890s its Victorian pavilion and gazebos hosted concerts, reunions, and dances.
Town of Calvert
Calvert, TX
Calvert began as "Sterling" in Sterling C. Robertson's 1820s colony and became a rowdy, booming cotton-export and trade center — its inscription conjures ox-carts, saloons, and casino tables piled with gold. It served as a Civil War mustering and supply point, then moved two miles to meet the Houston & Texas Central Railroad in 1868, taking a new name from Judge Robert Calvert, a landowner descended from Lord Baltimore. The railroad cemented its place as a regional cotton hub.