HistoricSiteMarkers
Reconstruction & Gilded Age

The Marshall-Chapman Home

Dripping Springs, Hays County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Burrell J. Marshall (1826-1872) built this residence in 1871 by adding rooms of native limestone to an existing frame structure. He used his home briefly as a post office while he was postmaster. When Marshall died in 1872, his widow Martha (1835-1924) married Wm. Thomas Chapman (1835-1917), who also became postmaster and a trustee of the Dripping Springs Academy. Marshall and Chapman family members owned the house until 1942, when John and Clara Wilson bought it. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1976

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Burrell J. Marshall built this Hays County home in 1871, adding native limestone rooms to an existing frame house, and briefly ran the post office here during his term as postmaster. After his death in 1872, his widow Martha married William Thomas Chapman, himself a postmaster and a trustee of the Dripping Springs Academy, and the two families held the house until 1942.

Why it matters

The home ties together the small institutions โ€” post office, academy, family homestead โ€” that knit together a Hill Country community after the Civil War.

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Related people

  • ยท Burrell J. Marshall
  • ยท William Thomas Chapman

Themes & tags

Nearby & related markers

W. T. Chapman

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Georgia-born William Thomas Chapman came to the Dripping Springs area after being wounded and captured in the Civil War, and by the 1870s had become the community's postmaster, stagecoach operator, and driving civic force. He gave land for a church, a Baptist congregation, and the Dripping Springs Academy, and in 1881 platted the town itself from his wife Martha's inherited acreage, naming the main street for their son. A merchant and Confederate-veterans organizer, he helped found Camp Ben McCulloch.

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Phillips Cemetery

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