Historical Markers in Travis County
Texas·296 places·Page 4 of 12
History
Eanes School and Chapel
A log cabin built on property of Robert Eanes (1805-95) in 1872 was the first Eanes school. In 1874 the school was moved to a one-room frame structure on this adjacent 2-acre tract given by William and Sophia Teague. Itinerant ministers conducted worship services in the schoolhouse, and a community cemetery was located near by.
History
Eanes-Marshall Ranch
Alexander Eanes (1806-1888) moved to Texas from Mississippi in 1845 and acquired this ranch by 1857. In 1873 he sold the property to his brother, Robert Eanes (1805-1895), who had moved to the area following the Civil War. A log cabin built on the Eanes ranch was the first Eanes school, and the community also assumed the Eanes name.
History
Edmund and Emily Miller House
Noted economist and University of Texas professor Edmund T. Miller (1878-1952) and his wife, Emily (1884-1979), an artist and member of the pioneer Maverick family of San Antonio, acquired this property in 1922. The design for their Mediterranean style home was the work of Emily Miller, her nephew Edward Sammons Maverick, and architecture professor Raymond Everett.
History
Education in Manchaca
The community of Manchaca, named for a campsite of Tejano Army Officer Jose Antonio Menchaca. First received a post office in 1851. Early Educational Efforts included an 1870s subscription school in a one-room frame schoolhouse on Onion Creek. The first public school began in the early 1880s and was held in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church near Onion Creek and adjoining Live Oak Cemetery.
History
Edward Clark House Outbuilding
Edward Clark (Lt. Governor 1859-1861; Governor 1861) purchased four lots, including this property, in 1856. This brick structure likely served as an outbuilding, and possibly as slave quarters, during the period Clark lived in the adjacent home from 1856-1867. The layout of the home is typical of slave quarters for the period and could have housed the ten slaves Clark owned.
History
Elisabet Ney
(Jan. 26, 1833 - June 29, 1907) World-renowned sculptor; lived 35 years in Texas, where she executed works of many noted citizens. Born in Muenster, Westphalia, Germany, Elisabet grew up beautiful, talented, and self-willed. At 19 she began to study at the Academy of Arts, Munich, where her skill and charm brought many admirers, and her strong opinions made some think her eccentric.
History
Elroy
Swedish and German immigrants began to settle in this area in the 1890s. A post office was established in 1898, and by 1918 there were about 70 families in the area. The community, whose economy was based on cotton farming, consisted of homes, farms, a school, four cotton gins, a blacksmith shop, general store, and three Swedish churches with cemeteries.
History
Emma West Flats
After attorney Robert G. West (1860-1904) died, his widow Emma Grant West (1865-1952) had this structure built to provide rental income for support of their four childern. Erected by contractors Fischer & Lambie in 1905, the brick edifice had one aparment on each floor, with servants' quarters in the basement. In 1925 Mrs.
History
Espinosa-Olivares-Aguirre Expedition
Approximate Site Reached by the Espinosa-Olivares-Aguirre Expedition. A good will trip made in 1709, when Spain was uneasy about her 190-year-old claim to Texas. (She had closed east Texas missions, then had learned of a French trading visit to Texas, 1707.) Capt.
History
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Dessau
The community of Dessau was founded in 1854 by German immigrants, including the Wieland, Nauert, Nehring, Grosskopf, Krueger, Goerlitz, and Hennig families. The pioneers worshiped in private homes until this sanctuary was built about 1876. Labor and materials used in its construction were supplied by members of the community.
History
Family Home of Dr. R. K. Smoot
Family home of Dr. R.K. Smoot, 1876-1905 pastor First Southern Presbyterian Church. Built 1877 of bricks hand made on Barton Creek. Site of founding, 1881, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary and 1889 wedding of Wm. Sidney Porter (the writer, O. Henry) and Miss Athol Estes. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1965
History
First Classes of the University of Texas Law School
The University of Texas held its first classes in the Temporary Capitol at this site on Sept. 15, 1883. Fifty-two of the 218 original students were registered in the Law department. They were taught by former governor of Texas Oran M. Roberts (1815-1898) and former Texas Supreme Court justice Robert S. Gould (1826-1904).
History
First Colored Baptist Church
The oldest Black Baptist church in the city, this fellowship grew from the slave membership of the First Baptist Church of Austin. In 1864 the Committee on Religious Conditions of the Colored Population recommended to the churches of the Austin Baptist Association that separate services be provided for their Black members.
History
Fischer House
Prussian native Joseph Fischer (1826-1889) constructed this home for his family in 1882 with the help of his son Francis. Skilled stonemasons, Joseph and Francis Fischer developed one of Austin's leading masonry contracting businesses of many notable area buildings, including the Texas Capitol.
History
Fiskville
Two area pioneers were Josiah Fisk, who arrived in 1846, and Edward Zimmerman, who came in 1854; both brought their families to the farming lands outside Austin. Zimmerman became the first postmaster in 1873, when more than 150 people lived in Fiskville, a dispersed agricultural community along Little Walnut Creek. Most residents were farmers, but the settlement also supported several businesses.
Military
Fort Magruder, C.S.A.
Fort Magruder, C.S.A. During the Civil War, Fort Magruder was built near here west of Congress Avenue. Named for Gen. John Bankhead Magruder, commander of Texas Confederate forces, it was one of three forts planned to protect Austin from a possible Union attack from the coast. In the winter of 1863-64, Maj. Julius Kellersberg supervised building of the L-shaped earthen fort.
History
Fortress Home
Built in early 1850's by Martin Wieland, from Dessau, Germany. Used as a neighborhood Fort. Enlarged 1873, 1912. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1964.
History
French Legation
Erected in the year 1841 by Conte Alphonse Dubois De Saligny, Charge D'Affaires for King Louis Philippe of France, to the Texas Republic. He lived here 1841-1842. House constructed of Bastrop pine, in Louisiana bayou style. Furnishings include several pieces once owned by Saligny. Purchased by State of Texas in 1945.
History
Gen. George W. Terrell
Born in Kentucky 1803. Came to Texas in 1840 from Mississippi. Associate justice, Supreme Court, 1840. Secretary of State, 1841. Attorney General, 1841-42. Charge d'Affiares of the the Republic of Texas to England, France, Spain 1844-45. Died in Austin, Texas, May 17, 1846. Erected by the State of Texas 1936
History
General Land Office of the State of Texas
1856-1918. Now dedicated by the state to the uses and purposes of the Daughters of the Republic and the Texas Division of the Daughters of the Confederacy. Here O. Henry worked from January, 1887 to January, 1891. Erected by the State of Texas 1936
History
George W. Sampson Home
Former confederate Army Captain and leading Austin merchant George W.Sampson (1825-88), Married Mary Goodwin Hall (b.1845), niece of Gov. Edmund J. Davis. Their wedding in 1872 was the first held in the Governor's Mansion. In 1875 the Sampson built this house of native limestone, hand-cut at the site. A cistern stored rainwater for what was possibly Austin's first complete indoor plumbing system.
History
George Washington Carver Branch Library
In Feb. 1926 the Austin Public Library opened in a room over a downtown store. Within months, the books were moved to this structure, built at Guadalupe and Ninth St., across from Wooldridge Park. In 1933, with completion of a permanent library facility, the original building was relocated here to meet the request of the black community for its own library.
Military
George Washington Glasscock
Born in Kentucky in 1810, G. W. Glasscock served in the Illinois militia in the Black Hawk War of 1832 in the same two units as Abraham Lincoln. Later he was Lincoln's business partner in flat-boating on the Sangamon River. In 1834, George came to Texas and settled in Zavala.
History
German Free School
German Free School Education was a primary concern for the new German immigrants who arrived in Texas in the 1840s and 1850s. Although Texas did not have a system of free public education at that time, it did offer subsidies for students attending private tuition schools who could not pay.
History
Gethsemane Church
The first Lutheran church in Travis County. Organized Dec. 12, 1868, by Swedish pioneers under leadership of Swante Palm. Site of first church building was 11 blocks SW; this structure was erected in 1883. It contains stone hauled in wheelbarrows from Texas Capitol that burned 1881. The present ornate, paneled doors came (1934) from Old Main building at University of Texas.
Elsewhere in Texas
Hear it from the road
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