William Whitaker Reed
Belton, Bell County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(January 23, 1816 - August 21, 1891) A native of Tennessee, William W. Reed came to Texas with his parents, Michael and Martha Reed, in 1833 and joined Robertson's colony in 1834. His land grant was situated near his parents' land on the south bank of the Little River. The family survived "The Runaway Scrape" during the Texas Revolution, after which William W. Reed and his brother, Jefferson Reed, joined the Republic of Texas Army. William Reed was among those who buried the remains of Colonel James W. Fannin's men at Goliad. After the war he returned to his homestead and married Emeline Cobb (1825-1890); they had ten children. In 1850 Reed participated in the election of a commissioners court to organize Bell County. He was elected the first county sheriff and served two terms. Reed died in 1891 and was buried on his land. (2000)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
William Whitaker Reed came to Texas from Tennessee in 1833 and joined Robertson's colony, taking land along the Little River just as the Texas Revolution swept the region. His family fled in the 'Runaway Scrape,' and he and his brother enlisted in the Republic of Texas Army, helping bury the remains of Fannin's men massacred at Goliad. Settling permanently after the war, Reed helped organize Bell County in 1850 and served as its first sheriff.
Why it matters
Reed's life traces the arc of Anglo-American settlement in Texas—from colonist to revolutionary soldier to founding officeholder of a new county.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
The 1830s were the decisive years of Anglo-American settlement in Texas. Under Mexican rule, empresarios recruited colonists from the United States to take up land grants in a vast, thinly settled country. Families from states like Tennessee packed their lives into wagons and came west, drawn by the promise of land along the rivers and creeks of the Texas interior.
Settlement here was never easy or safe. Colonists carved homesteads out of a frontier far from established towns, and the political ground was shifting beneath them. Tensions between the American settlers and the Mexican government were building toward open conflict, and the men and women on these isolated land grants would soon be swept into a revolution.
When that revolution came in 1835–1836, it turned ordinary settlers into refugees and soldiers almost overnight. The story on this marker belongs to that turbulent founding era — the passage from hopeful colonist to revolutionary and, finally, to citizen of a new republic.
People & events
William Whitaker Reed (1816–1891), a native of Tennessee, came to Texas with his parents, Michael and Martha Reed, in 1833, and joined Robertson's colony in 1834. His land grant lay near his parents' land on the south bank of the Little River — the family staking a shared future on the frontier.
Then the Texas Revolution engulfed the region. The Reed family survived "The Runaway Scrape," the desperate flight of settlers eastward ahead of advancing forces, an ordeal that scattered and terrified frontier families. Afterward, William and his brother Jefferson joined the Republic of Texas Army. William was among those who buried the remains of Colonel James W. Fannin's men at Goliad — a solemn duty following one of the war's darkest episodes, the massacre of surrendered soldiers.
When the fighting ended, Reed returned to his homestead and married Emeline Cobb (1825–1890); together they raised ten children. His public service came in 1850, when he took part in the election of a commissioners court to organize Bell County and was chosen its first county sheriff, serving two terms. He died in 1891 and was buried on his own land.
Its place in the American story
Reed's life traces, in a single span, the whole arc of early Texas: colonist, revolutionary soldier, and founding officeholder of a new county. It is the story of how a frontier region became first an independent republic and later part of the United States, told through one settler who lived every stage of it.
His role in burying Fannin's men at Goliad ties him personally to an event that helped define the revolution's memory. The killing of surrendered prisoners there became a rallying cry, and the grim task of laying those men to rest fell to soldiers like Reed — a reminder that the era's famous events were carried out by ordinary people.
Reed's later work organizing Bell County and serving as its first sheriff reflects the vast national process of building civil government across a growing country. Again and again, the same settlers who had fought and endured then turned to the patient work of founding counties, courts, and communities — the everyday institutions on which a nation was built.
If you visit
This is a memorial marker, so come to it in a reflective frame of mind. It honors a single life that stretched across the founding of Texas, from a Tennessee boy's arrival in 1833 to an old man's burial on his own Little River land in 1891 — nearly the entire span of the frontier era in one biography.
As you read it, let the milestones settle: the family's flight in the Runaway Scrape, the solemn burial detail at Goliad, the return home, the ten children, and the founding of a county with Reed as its first sheriff. Each is a thread connecting this quiet spot to the largest events of the age.
For a traveler exploring Bell County and Central Texas, this marker is a chance to trace history back to its roots — to the settlers who arrived when the country was raw and unorganized and who stayed to build what came after. Stand a moment and consider how the ordinary life it commemorates helped lay the foundation of the community around you.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · William Whitaker Reed
- · James W. Fannin
Related events
- · Texas Revolution
- · Runaway Scrape
- · Goliad Massacre
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Norman Austin
Belton, TX
Norman Austin's long life traced the arc of early Anglo Texas. A New York-born wanderer who farmed and clerked his way south, he was ranching in Matagorda County when the Texas Revolution broke out in 1835. Riding with Horton's cavalry attached to Fannin's command, he was one of only a handful who escaped the fate of the more than 300 men captured and executed near Goliad in 1836, and he spent his later decades as a Belton merchant hauling goods by oxcart.
Wilson Van Dyke
Belton, TX
South Carolina native Wilson Van Dyke joined the 1842 Somervell Expedition, mounted to drive the Mexican army from Texas, and pushed on across the Rio Grande in the ill-fated venture that followed. Captured, he survived the notorious "Black Bean Episode" — in which prisoners drew beans to decide who would be executed — and endured imprisonment near Mexico City until 1844, later taking part in Civil War-era musters before dying at his Bell County home.
Bell County
Belton vicinity, TX
Settlement along the Lampasas River began in 1847, and Bell County was created in 1850, taking its name from Peter Hansbrough Bell—a San Jacinto veteran, Mexican War officer, and governor of Texas. The county seat soon moved from Nolanville to Belton, and by 1860 nearly 4,800 people lived there. When the Civil War came, the county sent a dozen troop companies and supplied its cause with flour mills, a hat factory, tanneries, and workshops.
Captain Andrew Caddell
Belton, TX
Andrew Caddell was a North Carolina-born soldier who marched with the Texian army in the 1836 revolution, standing in the ranks as a private at the Battle of San Jacinto that won Texas its independence. He later rose to command a company of volunteers, part of the generation of frontier settlers who fought for and then built the young Republic of Texas. He and his wife Rhoda made their lives in the Bell County country, where this marker records their years.