Walker County
Huntsville, Walker County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Created, 1846, from Montgomery County. First named for Robert J. Walker, U.S. Senator; in Civil War, Samuel H. Walker, Texas Ranger and Mexican War hero, was made honoree. Huntsville, county seat, was once an Indian trading post. First courthouse was built, 1848. A second one burned, January, 1888, and the present one was built in August, 1888. Walker County today contains much of Sam Houston National Forest. Headquarters for Texas Department of Corrections and Sam Houston State College, the oldest state-supported college in Texas, are in Huntsville.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Carved from Montgomery County in 1846, Walker County was first named for U.S. Senator Robert J. Walker, then rededicated to honor Samuel H. Walker, the Texas Ranger and Mexican War hero. Its seat, Huntsville, began as an Indian trading post and got its first courthouse in 1848; after fire destroyed a later one, the present courthouse rose in 1888. Today the county holds part of the Sam Houston National Forest and is home to Sam Houston State College, the oldest state-supported college in Texas.
Why it matters
The county's very name—switched from one Walker to another—mirrors the sweep of early Texas from statehood and the Mexican War into its long institutional life.
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Related people
- · Robert J. Walker
- · Samuel H. Walker
- · Sam Houston
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Old Gibbs Store
Huntsville, TX
Thomas Gibbs opened this store in 1841, during the days of the Republic of Texas, and the present building went up in 1847 after Sanford Saint John Gibbs joined the firm. General Sam Houston was among its steady customers, and the partners drifted into banking after neighbors began storing valuables in their safe—an informal service that grew into Gibbs National Bank in 1890. It is celebrated as the oldest business in Texas under original ownership on its first site.
Walker County
Huntsville, TX
Walker County was carved from Montgomery County in 1846, the year Texas joined the Union, and first honored Robert J. Walker of Mississippi, a leading advocate of annexation. In 1863 the county was pointedly rededicated to Captain Samuel H. Walker, the daring Texas Ranger who fell fighting in Mexico during the U.S.-Mexico War. Huntsville has served as its county seat throughout.
First United Methodist Church of Huntsville
Huntsville, TX
Methodism reached Huntsville in the 1840s through circuit-riding preachers before the young Texas Methodist Conference assigned a resident pastor in 1842. The congregation worshiped without a permanent building for years, finally raising its first sanctuary in the 1850s and rebuilding repeatedly as the town grew and fire twice took the structure. Each rebuilding — culminating in the 1913 church — traces the deepening roots of an East Texas town settled in the Republic era.
Forrest Lodge No. 19, A.F. & A.M.
Huntsville, TX
Chartered in 1844, Forrest Lodge No. 19 is one of just 25 Masonic lodges founded under the Republic of Texas and the eighth oldest in the state. Its early rolls included Sam Houston and historian Henderson Yoakum, and member William Martin Taylor earned the title "Father of the Texas Work" for a handbook that standardized Masonic ritual across the state. Through fires, rebuildings, and a century of civic life, the lodge shared its halls with churches, schools, and the Red Cross and funded scholarships and relief.