Walker County
Huntsville, Walker County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Walker County, formed from Montgomery County, created April 6, 1846, organized July 13, 1846. Named in honor of Robert James Walker, 1801-1869, a distinguished citizen of Mississippi and advocate of the annexation of Texas. Renamed Walker County December 10, 1863, in honor of Captain Samuel H. Walker, 1810-1847, daring Texas Ranger who fell in Mexico. County seat, Huntsville.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
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.
Why it matters
The county's renaming captures how Texans remembered the Mexican-American War and the Ranger tradition even as loyalties shifted during the Civil War.
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Related people
- · Robert James Walker
- · Samuel H. Walker
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Near Burial Place of Governor George Tyler Wood
Point Blank, TX
Born in Georgia in 1795, George Tyler Wood came to Texas in 1839 and rose through the Republic's Congress, the 1845 Annexation Convention, and the first state Senate, which he left to fight in the Mexican War. As governor from 1847 to 1849 he rallied defenses against frontier raids, urged public schools and land sales to pay the state debt, and had Texas's laws codified, its library founded, and its penitentiary built. He is buried near here.
Walker County
Huntsville, TX
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.
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.
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.