The Community of Briggs
Briggs, Burnet County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Pioneers mainly from the Old South settled here on the Aaron Boyce land grant in the 1860s and 70s. They had a school, and held church services, at Gum Springs in the 1880s. In 1888 a post office opened at Taylor's Gin Store; this was renamed in 1898 for Mrs. Henry D. Briggs, an early settler. On April 12, 1906, a tornado destroyed much of the village. Afterward Briggs was rebuilt on a platted townsite; it thrived from 1906 to 1920, but began declining after a 1928 fire. Many of the townspeople have worked since 1950 at Fort Hood, in neighboring Bell County. (1977)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Settlers largely from the Old South took up land on the Aaron Boyce grant in the 1860s and '70s, holding school and church at Gum Springs before a post office opened in 1888 and the community was renamed in 1898 for Mrs. Henry D. Briggs. A tornado leveled much of the village in 1906, but Briggs was replatted and thrived until a 1928 fire hastened its decline; many residents later found work at nearby Fort Hood.
Why it matters
Briggs traces the full arc of a small Texas farm town — settlement, boom, disaster, and slow fade — and shows how a nearby military base reshaped rural livelihoods in the twentieth century.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Prairie View Cemetery
Briggs, TX
Before there was a church here, Burnet County pioneers gathered to worship in the Gum Springs Schoolhouse — until 1892, when Stephen Taylor deeded this land for a church and burial ground. The earliest documented grave belongs to Scottish immigrant James Smith, and around him rest pioneer settlers, many infants and children, and veterans of every American war from the Civil War through Korea. Though the congregation later dissolved and its building was carted off to Lampasas, a local association has tended the graves since 1977.
Mahomet-Sycamore Springs Community
Bertram, TX
Settlement of this part of Burnet County began in the 1850s with two neighboring communities, Mahomet and Sycamore Springs, some eight miles apart. Sycamore Springs once boasted gins, a store, and churches but has all but vanished, while Mahomet—likely named by its first postmaster for Mahomet, Illinois—hosted a post office and an Austin-Lampasas stage stop. Its Christian church and Masonic lodge still mark the site.
Stewart Pioneer Home
Bertram, TX
Benjamin Hansford Stewart left Tennessee for Texas in 1851 and made his living as a farmer and rancher, serving a term as Burnet County sheriff in the 1870s. In 1905 he built this frame house for his son Homer and daughter-in-law Viola, a typical Hill Country ranch home of its day set off by a chimney of hand-hewn limestone. Six generations of the Stewart family have lived in and cared for it.
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.