Somervell County
Glen Rose, Somervell County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Named for Alexander Somervell (1796-1854), native of Maryland, veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto, secretary of War under Texas President David G. Burnet; commanded the 1842 Somervell Expedition seeking to end Mexican invasions of Texas Republic. Region was in old Brazos Land District. Home of Wacos and other Indians. First white settler was Charles Barnard, 1848. First cotton crop and first tannery were introduced during Civil War, 1861-1865. Created from land in south end of Hood County and organized in 1875; Glen Rose (founded as Barnard's Mill), county seat. (1965)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This county honors Alexander Somervell, a Maryland-born veteran of San Jacinto who served as the Republic of Texas secretary of war and led the 1842 Somervell Expedition against Mexican incursions. The region, long home to the Waco and other Native peoples, saw its first Anglo settler in Charles Barnard in 1848, and raised its first cotton crop and tannery during the Civil War. Carved from the south end of Hood County in 1875, the new county made Glen Rose — founded as Barnard's Mill — its seat.
Why it matters
The county's story traces the layered history of the Texas frontier, from Indigenous homelands through Republic-era military expeditions to postwar settlement and county organization.
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Related people
- · Alexander Somervell
- · Charles Barnard
Related events
- · 1842 Somervell Expedition
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Squaw Creek Indian Fight
Glen Rose, TX
In early 1864 a raiding party of about twenty Native Americans crossed from Indian Territory into Texas, descending the high ground between Prairie and Squaw Creeks near present Glen Rose. They killed stockman Rigman Bryant and a captive young man, gathered a large stolen horse herd from area ranches, and were finally overtaken by the local home guard in a running skirmish that forced them to abandon the horses. The clash reflects the violent frontier warfare that gripped North Central Texas during the Civil War years, when frontier defense fell to home guards.
Barnard's Trading Post No. 2
Glen Rose, TX
In 1843 the Torrey brothers and their friend George Barnard—with Sam Houston as a silent partner—won a contract to build trading posts along the Brazos frontier. Barnard's fair dealing earned Native trust, and after ransoming a young captive, Juana Cavasos, from the Comanches, the family settled her with his brother Charles at a post near Comanche Peak. When the government removed the region's Native peoples to Oklahoma in 1859, the trade faded, and Charles built a gristmill whose town became Glen Rose.
Comanche Peak
Granbury, TX
Rising 1,229 feet above the Brazos country, Comanche Peak is really a flat-topped mesa long known as a landmark to Native peoples and later settlers. It may have held ceremonial meaning for local tribes or served as a lookout over game and rivals, and a Comanche trail crossed the region nearby. In 1846 a party of pioneers and Native Americans bound for a meeting there nearly missed it because of its flat crown, and later settlers came to dance, picnic, and hunt among its caves and rocks.
John W. Bull Stone House
Tolar, TX
Tennessee-born John W. Bull came to Texas in 1853, preempted land here in 1861 within sight of Comanche Peak, and in 1865 took part in the Dove Creek fight against Kickapoo people migrating through the region. After his land grant was approved, he hired mason Pat Gannon to build this stone house from a nearby quarry, chiseling the date "March 17, 1872" into the chimney. It stands as one of the area's earliest masonry homes on what was then the Texas frontier.