Organized in 1881 with nine charter members, this church first served pioneer settlers of the Admiral community. Services were conducted in a family log cabin, under brush arbors, or in local schoolhouses until members built a sanctuary here near . . . — — Map (db m79872) HM
Dedicated to the Veterans in
Admiral Cemetery
Ables, Loy C. • Bowen, James Lindy • Bowen, Ray Joe • Cargile, Thomas Ray • Davis, W.K. ★ • Eastham, J.E. ★ • Eubanks, George F. • Gibbs, George C. • Hansen, Ralph E. • Hargrove, Buel . . . — — Map (db m79871) WM
Planted on April 26, 2003, this oak tree is a direct offspring from the famous Treaty Oak in Austin, Texas where Stephen F. Austin is reputed to have signed the treaty establishing the boundary between the Native Americans and the first Anglo . . . — — Map (db m80851) HM
First official county seat of Callahan County, 1877 - 1883. The first unofficial county seat was Callahan City where the commissioners court was organized, July 30, 1877, and several civil and probate cases filed. By an invalid election, October . . . — — Map (db m79092) HM
Deed for cemetery dated Dec. 10, 1884. Texas and Pacific Railway Company conveyed through E.E. Solomon, County Judge. All of its right and title to citizens of Callahan County, nine acres, one and one half miles south of Belle Plaine for a cemetery. . . . — — Map (db m79081) HM
Residents of the short-lived community of Belle Plaine were burying their dead at this site as early as 1878. Although the presence of unmarked graves suggests earlier possible usage, the oldest marked grave, that of sixteen-year-old Virgil Hill, . . . — — Map (db m79079) HM
Established prior to the organization of Callahan County in 1877. Burial place of many pioneers who came here during era of Indians and great early ranches. Served people of such bygone towns as Admiral, Callahan City, and other neighboring . . . — — Map (db m79858) HM
Formed from Bexar Territory
Created February 1, 1858
Recreated August 21, 1876
Organized July 3, 1877
Named in Honor of
James H. Callahan, 1812-1856
Soldier in the Texas Revolution
Captain of the Texas Rangers
County . . . — — Map (db m80805) HM
Shortly after WWII, the first official Callahan County airport opened. Baird businessmen Ralph Ashlock and Earl Johnson leased this land from William H. Hardy where two decades earlier Mr. Hardy operated a county poor farm. With help from local . . . — — Map (db m79317) HM
The county seat moved from Belle Plain to Baird in 1883, and a courthouse, designed by noted architect F.E. Ruffini, was built at this site. The county hired another noted architect, J. Riely Gordon, in 1900 for a larger courthouse; J.E. Flanders . . . — — Map (db m80804) HM
Dedicated to the Memory
Of Those Men Who Gave
Their Lives in the Service
Of Their County to
Preserve Our Freedom
Sponsored by Baird
Rebekah Lodge No. 112
Erected by
Mr. & Mrs. W.J. Cross
World War I
Thomas H. . . . — — Map (db m80809) WM
Camp Pecan
C.S.A.
This Civil War camp of the Texas Frontier Regiment was located 21 mi. southeast. Established in 1862 as one of a line of posts a days horseback ride apart. The number of men guarding the frontier were few. Trouble . . . — — Map (db m80810) HM
Organized in 1881 with nine charter members, this was the first Baptist church founded in the new town of Baird. Elder G.P. Johnson led worship services until the Rev. L.S. Knight was called as the first full-time pastor. After meeting in the town . . . — — Map (db m80766) HM
Built 1878, Belle Plaine. Baird citizens paid bill for removal here, 1883, after election contest.
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1965 — — Map (db m80778) HM
Organized June 26, 1885, by six members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, under the Rev. F.E. Leach. Town of Baird was then five years old.
In 1906, the Cumberland and “Northern” branches of the church were united.
The . . . — — Map (db m80765) HM
The Baird area was the mid-point of the first all weather two land highway from Savannah, Ga. to San Diego, California. The Naval Division Branch connected Washington D.C. to Norfolk, Virginia.
Named for Alabama Senator John Hollis Bankhead, . . . — — Map (db m80819) HM
The Texas and Pacific Railway arrived December 4, 1880 and the town of Baird came to be. A burial ground was soon needed so 10 acres were reserved by E.H. Newton in 1881 and in 1887. Those 10 acres were deeded by James Evans Ross, thus the name . . . — — Map (db m80935) HM
Early college of west Texas. Founded in 1881 by Methodist Church. Enrollment reached peak of 300 and students attended from throughout the region.
College developed a superior course of study with special strength in music. It had an orchestra . . . — — Map (db m290760) HM
Callahan County was created in 1858 and named for Texas Ranger James H. Callahan (1814-56). Permanent settlement of this area began after the Civil War (1861-65). Residents petitioned in 1877 for organization of county government. Callahan City, . . . — — Map (db m290761) HM
This building was the early home of the Merchant family, who later moved to Abilene. Clabe Merchant, twin-brother of John Merchant, becoming the founder of Abilene and naming it after the town in Kansas, at the end of the cattle trail at that time. . . . — — Map (db m79090) HM
The Texas & Pacific Railway arrived here in 1880, platting a town near the work camp of Matthew Baird, surveyor and engineer. In 1881, the T&P built a roundhouse and immigrant house, and moved a depot building to this new railroad division point. . . . — — Map (db m80779) HM
The Bankhead National Highway, from Washington, D.C. to San Diego, California, was the nation’s first all-weather, coast-to-coast highway. The southern road skirted the western mountains and was largely free from ice and snow, so it could be used . . . — — Map (db m80763) HM
A native of Illinois, William Jeff Maltby gained fame as a frontiersman, veteran of the Mexican War and American Civil War and Texas Ranger. Maltby began his Texas exploits about 1850, building frontier forts for the U.S. Army. He retired to . . . — — Map (db m79083) HM
(Front Panel)
Alexander Charles Garrett 33
Inspector General Honorary
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of
Freemasonry
This tablet erected by the Scottish Rite Masons of Dallas as a loving tribute to the memory of a great and . . . — — Map (db m78040) HM
Organized in 1884, the Methodist congregation at Clyde met in private homes until their first church building was erected on this site in 1904. The white frame structure was replaced in 1936 by this sanctuary, built of stone donated by church . . . — — Map (db m80726) HM
Settlers began moving to this area when the Texas and Pacific Railroad completed its line in December 1880. Many located near the commissary of railroad crew foreman Robert Clyde, for whom the town is named. A post office was established in 1881. . . . — — Map (db m80724) HM
Alexander Charles Garrett (1832-1924), a native of Ireland, came to Canada as an Anglican missionary. Later he moved to San Francisco, and then to Omaha, Nebraska. In 1874 he was sent to Dallas as bishop of the Northern Missionary District of Texas. . . . — — Map (db m78039) HM
Born April 3, 1878, in Somerset, Ky., Judge Walter Raleigh Ely came to Callahan County with his parents in 1895. Largely self-educated, he entered the profession of law and had a distinguished career. He served as County Attorney and County Judge of . . . — — Map (db m79585) HM
Born April 3, 1878, in Somerset, Ky., Judge Walter Raleigh Ely came to Callahan County with his parents in 1895. Largely self-educated, he entered the profession of law and had a distinguished career. He served as County Attorney and County Judge of . . . — — Map (db m79586) HM
Typically Victorian in style. Built in 1906 by Frank X. Prew, who emigrated from Wisconsin in 1889, desiring to live in a young country. He began a small farm and worked on railroad.
Structure is mainly pine. The oak wainscoting downstairs . . . — — Map (db m80723) HM
Belmont L. Shields founded the Cross Plains Review in April 1909, when the town was sited on Turkey Creek. He wanted the newspaper established before the railroad came to town, which occurred when the Texas Central arrived in 1912 and most . . . — — Map (db m310207) HM
W.F. Griffin opened a bank about 1911 in this small frame building. With Griffin as a director, Paul Ramsey served as the first president. His duties included teller, cashier, loan officer and custodian. When the railroad bypassed Cottonwood, . . . — — Map (db m79976) HM
Situated on a flat area near the edge of town, the Cross Plains Cemetery is the final resting place for the town’s key leaders and families. The land, originally granted to James Knight, one of Stephen F. Austin’s original colonists, for service . . . — — Map (db m304487) HM
1 mile east to
Fort Mason-Camp Cooper
Military Road
Route for U.S. 2nd Cavalry and supplies from San Antonio to Fort Mason (about 100 mi. S. of here) to Camp Cooper (about 65 mi. N.) in campaigns of 1851-1861 against Plains Indians. Great . . . — — Map (db m307848) HM
1 mile east to
Fort Mason-Camp Cooper
Military Road
Route for U.S. 2nd Cavalry and supplies from San Antonio to Fort Mason (about 100 miles south of here) to Camp Cooper (about 65 miles north) in campaigns of 1851-1861 against Plains . . . — — Map (db m307849) HM
This location of the Higginbotham Brothers and Co. was opened on Nov. 20, 1914 by brothers Rufus Wilson, Joseph Martin, and Bolivar Taylor, Jr. Original glass counters, cabinets, mirrors, stairways, floors and tin ceiling are still in use today. . . . — — Map (db m310206) HM
Adventure and fantasy writer (and creator of Conan) Robert Ervin Howard (1906-1936) moved in 1919 to this homesite with his parents, Dr. Isaac and Hester (Ervin) Howard. Robert E. Howard wrote hundreds of stories, spanning several genres, and . . . — — Map (db m201980) HM
For his military service with the Republic of Texas, George Washington Glasscock, Sr. (1810-68) received a land grant incorporating the future settlement of Cottonwood. His will conveyed this land to his daughter, Sarah Jane Glasscock Hall, whose . . . — — Map (db m79977) HM
After Indians on High Plains were subdued (1874) by Gen. R.S. MacKenzie, settlers started to pour into this area, where they found abundant game, water, and good soil for ranching, farming. Cottonwood Springs, at head of Green Briar Creek, was one . . . — — Map (db m79978) HM
Born in Alabama, moved to Texas 1839. Married Frances Monteith and had nine children. Was first doctor in Brown County, 1865; and in Callahan County, 1874; owned general store; planted county’s first orchard here in Tecumseh. — — Map (db m78968) HM
Before Callahan County organized, settlers built homes in this area. Many more families came after the arrival of the Texas and Pacific Railroad in 1880. A town was officially named in 1898 to honor U.S. District Attorney William Hawley Atwell. For . . . — — Map (db m79979) HM
The original Burkett Pecan tree, bred from a native tree, 1900, by J.H. Burkett (1861-1945), Texas pecan industry leader.
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark 1966 — — Map (db m290378) HM
Nearby Battle Creek was given its name in 1840 by a small band of men who had traveled to this area in search of hostile Indians. A fight took place near the creek when a raiding party attacked the group. Approximately twenty years later, cattleman . . . — — Map (db m79315) HM
