A landmark on the "Old Colony Road" between Huntsville and Ryan's Ferry on the Trinity River. Named for Thomas Akin (1828-78), a native of Mississippi, who came to Texas in 1853 with his wife, Ruth Leakey Akin, whom he met and married in Bienville . . . — — Map (db m232046) HM
Born in Buckingham County, Va.; came to Texas, 1847. Settled in Huntsville; entered law practice with Henderson Yoakum. Married Amanda Smith, 1849. Served in the 8th State Legislature, 1859-61; the Confederate army, 1862; and the Congress of . . . — — Map (db m129702) HM
The Presbyterian Church established Austin College in Huntsville in 1849 and erected this structure in 1851-52. Austin College moved to Sherman in 1876, and in 1879 this building was deeded to the state for use by the newly-established Sam Houston . . . — — Map (db m66311) HM
Bath Cemetery near Union Hill Church was established in the 1870s. The earliest recorded burial is that of William Arnold (d. 1877). The burial ground has served the Bath Community, locally called Possum Walk, since that time and area residents and . . . — — Map (db m195014) HM
The Bell "Huey" Helicopter became one of the most recognizable aircraft in the history during the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War was the first war shown on the television and the Huey Helicopter was seen by millions nightly. — — Map (db m195753) HM
Following the end of slavery, African American communities established education institutions for freed African Americans. After the end of Reconstruction, federal funding for African American schools decreased, so African American churches often . . . — — Map (db m241459) HM
Settlement of this area began in the 1830s. Black Jack Methodist Church was organized in 1871 and a sanctuary was built about four miles west of this site. The congregation moved here in 1886, and land for a new sanctuary and cemetery was given by . . . — — Map (db m180262) HM
On Nov. 26,1881, nine residents of the rural Boswell community met in a log schoolhouse (.25 mi. S) to organize this Baptist church. The Rev. T.E. King served as the first pastor and services were held in the schoolhouse until 1883. That year a . . . — — Map (db m180246) HM
Buck Foster Cemetery, also known as Foster or Loma Cemetery, is located about twelve miles west of Huntsville in the eastern part of the Loma Community. The cemetery was officially created when William Harrison "Buck" Foster (1835-1908) sold 100 . . . — — Map (db m195067) HM
Camp Huntsville, completed here in 1942, was one of the first prisoner of war (POW) camps built in the U.S. during World War II. Designed to house 3,000 POWs, it had more than 400 buildings, as well as eight branch camps. The first POWs, part of . . . — — Map (db m49725) HM
Located a few blocks from the first prison in Texas, the 1848 Huntsville Penitentiary, the Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery is the final resting place for more than 3,000 inmates who died while incargerated within the Texas prison system. The first inmate . . . — — Map (db m180265) HM
Shaver received a bachelor’s degree from Sam Houston State Teachers College in 1923. He served n the Texas Legislature and as President of the Texas State Teachers Association, helping to create the State's Teacher-Retirement System. Shaver . . . — — Map (db m66317) HM
This building was completed in 1899 and was used until the courthouse and the third floor were destroyed by fire early on the morning of December 24th 1968. No records were lost in the fire and later that day all the county offices were moved to an . . . — — Map (db m72593) HM
This congregation was organized in 1854 by the Rev. J.W.D. Creath, pastor of the Huntsville Baptist Church, and the Rev. Richard Pace, the pioneer Baptist leader and preacher who served as the first minister at this church. Early worship services . . . — — Map (db m195064) HM
Along with Ebenezer Baptist Church, this cemetery organized in 1854 on land donated by Jonathan and Sarah McGary along a stagecoach road from Huntsville to Austin. Prominent Baptist minister J.W.D. Creath, representing the Southern Baptist . . . — — Map (db m195068) HM
Elliott Bowers entered Sam Houston State Teachers College in 1937 and completed his bachelor’s and master's degrees in Music by 1942. He earned a doctorate in Educational Administration at the University of Houston in 1959. After military service . . . — — Map (db m66316) HM
Fire hose carts, like this one, were used on the prison units to fight fires inside the compound. A team of inmates on each unit was trained for the fire team. An officer on the unit was assigned to the fire cart and supervised the squad of inmates. — — Map (db m195748) HM
Joseph Addison Clark, who with his brother, Randolph Clark, later founded Texas Christian University, started this congregation in January 1854. The church originally had a dozen members who met in private homes, for a time worship services were . . . — — Map (db m180384) HM
The first meeting site of Huntsville's Masonic Lodge was the upper floor of a two-story brick general store on this corner. Alexander McDonald purchased several lots in this block from Pleasant Gray, the founder of Huntsville, in 1842 and 1843. The . . . — — Map (db m180335) HM
In 1867, Huntsville Methodists and Baptists shared the Union Church. Two years later, the Baptists built a separate church in the Rogersville neighborhood called First Missionary Baptist Church, which was organized by Rev. J.J. Rhinehardt with the . . . — — Map (db m180430) HM
Organized by the Presbytery of the Brazos in June 1848, the First Presbyterian Church of Huntsville began with one elder and ten members. Early worship services were held in the county courthouse, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and the chapel . . . — — Map (db m111152) HM
Before 1842 Methodists in Huntsville were probably served by itinerant preachers on the Montgomery County circuit. The Texas Methodist Conference appointed The Rev. Henderson B. Palmer as first pastor of the Huntsville church in that year. Records . . . — — Map (db m129556) HM
One of 25 lodges started during the Republic of Texas, Forrest Lodge No. 19, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, was chartered on Jan. 11, 1844. It is the eighth oldest lodge in Texas. Among its early members were Sam Houston and Texas historian . . . — — Map (db m111850) HM
During the Vietnam War and many others, soldiers in combat would usually spend some of their time in some sort of bunker. It would be a place of safety and a place to observe and be a lookout for the enemy. This particular forward observation post . . . — — Map (db m195752) HM
A native of Pennsylvania, John Slater Besser was a Brigadier General, legislator, and judge in Missouri before moving his family to Texas in 1842. While living in Montgomery and Walker counties, Besser held a number of public offices before and . . . — — Map (db m129578) HM
Built in 1862, this Greek revival house was, originally the home of the Thomas Gibbs family. Used briefly as a rent house and for student housing in the 1880s and 1890s. It was purchased by Judge Ben Powell, II, in 1897. Although altered over the . . . — — Map (db m180396) HM
A native Texan, Lowman saw World War I military service before attaining a bachelor's degree at Southwest State Teachers College in 1923, a master's degree at the University of Texas, and the Doctor of Philosophy degree at the University of . . . — — Map (db m66319) HM
Estill was valedictorian of the Sam Houston Normal Institute's first senior class in 1880 and spent 55 years on campus as student, faculty member, and president. He authored early United States history texts for public-school students in southern . . . — — Map (db m66318) HM
A graduate of the United States Military Academy (1832), Henderson Yoakum saw duty on frontiers and in the Mexican War. He practiced law and served in the Senate in his native Tennessee, moving to Texas in 1845. In Huntsville he became a civic . . . — — Map (db m129623) HM
Soldier and politician Henderson Yoakum (1810-1856) arrived in Texas in Oct. 1845 from Tennessee. In Dec. 1847, he purchased 640 acres from J.H. Shepherd seven miles east of Huntsville. At this site Yoakum built a center hall country home from . . . — — Map (db m180258) HM
Built in 1880 as lodge hall. First floor soon became a dry goods and grocery store, and second was made into a fine theater by owner, John Henry (1828-97). Here traveling troupes played Shakespeare and dramas of the times. Famous magician Hermann . . . — — Map (db m29241) HM
Four buildings have been erected on this site since 1852 to serve the congregation as houses of worship. It is certain this bell hung in the steeple of the second building constructed in 1891. Church historians have good evidence it hung also in the . . . — — Map (db m180322) HM
A large number of sunken, unmarked graves were revealed in 2004 when this area was cleared of heavy underbrush by a carefully selected and supervised crew averaging ten offenders from the Huntsville "Walls" unit. These men were permitted by the . . . — — Map (db m158407) HM
The Republic of Texas Congress passed a law to establish a prison system in 1842, but it wasn't until 1848, after a new law passed the state legislature, that steps were taken to achieve the goal. Huntsville was selected as the site for the state . . . — — Map (db m155935) HM
English native George Robinson (1820-1888), formerly of the Galveston News, moved to Huntsville by 1846 and began printing the Huntsville Item on August 20, 1850. He was able to employ an apprentice printer that year. In 1859 Robinson and Dr. . . . — — Map (db m180401) HM
Kentucky native Pleasant Gray and his wife Hannah (Holshouser) left Tennessee with their two children in 1834 and in 1835 settled here on land granted to them as part of Mexico's colonization effort. At that time natural springs located nearby . . . — — Map (db m180359) HM
James Addison Baker was born to Jane Saxton and Elijah Adam Baker on March 3, 1821 near Huntsville, Alabama. He was admitted to the bar in 1843 and wed Caroline Hightower in 1849. She died in 1852, and he moved that year to join her family . . . — — Map (db m111088) HM
In 1822 Jesse Parker moved to the Mexican state of Texas. A veteran of the War of 1812, he represented the Sabine District at the Convention of 1832 in San Felipe de Austin. Three years later he received a land grant in the Washington municipality, . . . — — Map (db m129701) HM
Huntsville native John William Thomason Jr. was born on February 28, 1893, as the eldest of nine children of Dr. John Williams and Sue Hayes (Goree) Thomason. Graduating from Huntsville High School in 1909, he taught in area schools for seven years . . . — — Map (db m241457) HM
Oilman and Huntsville native Robert A. Josey donated funding for the construction of this log structure in 1933. Additional funding was obtained from the federal government's Civil Works Administration (CWA), and Gibbs Brothers and Company donated . . . — — Map (db m117556) HM
Joshua Houston, trusted former servant to General Sam Houston and his wife, Margaret, was one of the first freedmen to purchase real estate from M.C. Rogers in the surrounding area that came to be known as "Rogersville". The homestead at Avenue O . . . — — Map (db m180426) HM
Born a slave and reared on the Alabama plantation of the Lea family, Joshua Houston was brought to Texas in 1840 by Margaret Lea and Sam Houston. During the years after the Civil War, he became a prominent businessman and respected community leader. . . . — — Map (db m8079) HM
This building is named in honor of the person who was the blacksmith and factotum for the Houston Family until emancipation.
Joshua was considered family, taking "Houston" for his last name after emancipation.
As a blacksmith, he made . . . — — Map (db m195310) HM
The M60-A-3 Patton Main Battle Tank is now primarily found in the U.S. reserve and National Guard units, but served as the primary U.S. main battle tank for two decades prior to the introduction of the M1. Developed from the M48 Patton Series, the . . . — — Map (db m195754) HM
Margaret Moffette Lea was born on her family’s farm in Pleasant Valley, near Marion, Alabama. She graduated from Judson Female Institute in Marion in 1837, and in 1839 she met General Sam Houston. Houston, who had completed his term as the first . . . — — Map (db m22031) HM
Robinson's settlement became a stronghold for Methodist activity in southeast Texas in the early 1830s. By 1839 a campground, church, and school were established here on land given by William and Elizabeth Robinson to the Rev. Littleton Fowler, . . . — — Map (db m195026) HM
This cemetery existed as early as 1846, for three graves were placed here that year. Pleasant Gray, Huntsville's founder, deeded in 1847 a 1,600-square foot plot at this site. The original tract has been greatly enlarged by other donations from . . . — — Map (db m8074) HM
Old Gibbs Store, oldest business in Texas under original ownership and on first site. Established 1841 in Republic of Texas by Thomas Gibbs. Building erected in 1847 after Sanford Saint John Gibbs joined firm. General Sam Houston was steady . . . — — Map (db m201852) HM
First permanent structure built by state of Texas for teacher training--when Joseph Baldwin was president of Sam Houston Normal Institute, L. S. Ross was governor, and A. T. McKinney was chairman of the S.H.N.I. local board. Cornerstone was laid . . . — — Map (db m66312) HM
Dr. Rufus W. Bailey, a teacher, minister and attorney educated in New England, came to Huntsville as a language professor at Austin College in 1855. He acquired an eight-acre tract on this site and erected a house which he named "Buena Vista," but . . . — — Map (db m66314) HM
The first campus structure to be used exclusively for library purposes, this building was erected in 1902. Built with assistance from the Peabody Education Fund (a philanthropic program created by northern banker George Peabody soon after the . . . — — Map (db m66313) HM
Doctor Pleasant Williams Kittrell, a statesman in North Carolina and Alabama, moved with his family to Texas in 1850. While serving two terms in the Texas Legislature, the doctor authored the bill to establish the University of Texas. Though the . . . — — Map (db m129691) HM
Benjamin Harrison Powell (1881-1960) was a successful lawyer in the area for fifteen years until he was appointed in 1918 by Governor Hobby as judge of the 12th District Court and subsequently to the Commission of Appeals in Austin. Marian (Rather) . . . — — Map (db m129693) HM
Missouri native Joseph Lucien Pritchett (1858-1936) and his wife, Lenora Melissa (Evans), moved to Huntsville in 1888, when he was appointed to the faculty of Sam Houston Normal Institute as a professor of mathematics. After acquiring some property . . . — — Map (db m180387) HM
Rather Memorial Park is located on the home site of Rawley Samuel Rather and his wife, Mary Caroline Henry, lifetime residents of Huntsville, and their five children. In 1886 the family built a single-story Victorian home to which a second story was . . . — — Map (db m180326) HM
This simple log cabin, built in the mid 1840s, was originally located on West Sandy Creek fifteen miles west of Huntsville. The cabin was built by Allen Roberts, stepson of Hezekiah Farris, a San Jacinto veteran believed to be one of the captors of . . . — — Map (db m180494) HM
Noted for being Huntsville's oldest African-American neighborhood, Rogersville is roughly situated between 7th and 10th Streets and Old Madisonville Road and Avenue N. Micajah C. Rogers, Huntsville's first mayor, originally owned most of the land . . . — — Map (db m180442) HM
Successful businesswoman Sallie E. Gibbs was born Sarah Elizabeth Smith in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on October 18, 1844 to Mary Washington (Ledbetter) and Thomas Jefferson Smith. Her parents operated a large plantation, and she received . . . — — Map (db m180509) HM
Sam Houston
American, Texan, Patriot, Master Mason
U.S. Congressman - Tennessee
1823-1827
Governor of Tennessee
1827-1829
President - Republic of Texas
1836-1838 and 1841-1844
U.S. Senator - Texas
1859-1861
"The great . . . — — Map (db m119804) HM
Born March 2, 1793, in Rockbridge County, Va.; son of Samuel and Elizabeth Houston. Moved to Tennessee in 1807 with widowed mother and her family. In 1813 joined U.S. Army under Gen. Andrew Jackson, with whom he formed lifetime friendship and . . . — — Map (db m201859) HM
Legislated after the close of the Civil War, the Texas Constitution of 1866 provided for a public school system supported by funds derived from property taxes; monies collected from African Americans would go to schools for their children. Although . . . — — Map (db m195072) HM
This corner was a favorite site where General Sam Houston sat in a special hide-bottom chair to whittle small objects and talk with customers at the General Mercantile Store owned by his friends Thomas and Sandford Gibbs. Early records of the . . . — — Map (db m111866) HM
General Sam Houston is credited with having sat on this corner to whittle and tell stories to groups of listeners who gathered around him while visiting a store operated at this location during the years the Houston family lived in Huntsville . . . — — Map (db m111868) HM
Andrew Female College was founded in 1852 and chartered in early 1853. It was named for Bishop James Osgood Andrew and sponsored by the Texas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, although its charter allowed no religious tests for . . . — — Map (db m180350) HM
Established and Chartered in 1853 an Influential Early Texas College for Women Founded by the Methodist Church Named for Bishop James Osgood Andrew Closed After About 26 Years of Service — — Map (db m241016) HM
German immigrant Baldwin Boettcher established a sawmill at Westfield, north of Houston, in 1898, along the International & Great Northern rail line. Boettcher and his mill workers produced 15,000 board feet of yellow pine, gum and cypress lumber . . . — — Map (db m180275) HM
On this site once stood the first church building erected in Huntsville. In 1849, Cumberland Presbyterian Church trustees A.C. King and T.J. Caldwell purchased this land on behalf of the congregation, and the building was constructed soon . . . — — Map (db m241456) HM
Forrest Lodge No. 19, A.F & A.M., erected its first lodge building at this site early in 1850 on a lot measuring 50 by 75 feet purchased in 1849. The two-story white frame building was 50 feet square with five plastered brick columns in front. . . . — — Map (db m111849) HM
The first building erected in Huntsville is thought to have been the log trading post built near this site about 1835-36 by the town's founder, Pleasant Gray, in order to barter with the Bedias and other friendly tribes of Indians in the vicinity. . . . — — Map (db m180329) HM
This congregation was organized shortly after the Civil War to serve the newly freed slaves of the Huntsville area. The earliest worship services were conducted in 1868 in the Union Church building at this site. The sanctuary, located on land . . . — — Map (db m180389) HM
Inmates, slaves, free men worked in the penitentiary textile factory, main source of cloth goods for Confederate southwest. Here king cotton and wool became millions of yards of cloth and yarn osnaburgs, uniforms for state troops, Confederate Army, . . . — — Map (db m180288) HM
Built in 1858 by Dr. Rufus Bailey, 1858-62 president of Austin College, as a wedding gift for son. Unusual house caused such joking, however, the couple refused to live in it.
In 1862, after Sam Houston left governorship of Texas, he rented . . . — — Map (db m241017) HM
This syrup kettle is believed to have been used at the McNeal Sugar Plantation in Brazoria County during the early to mid 1800's. The Clemens Unit now sits on what was once part of that plantation. During the 1950's to the 1960's, the Clemens Unit . . . — — Map (db m195749) HM
The Bedias (Bidai, Bedai) Indians, a small southeastern Texas tribe, were probably the earliest inhabitants of the Walker County region. "Bidai" is thought to derive from a Caddo word meaning "brushwood". The peaceful Bedias lived in scattered . . . — — Map (db m100258) HM
When the town of Huntsville was scarcely settled, citizens donated funds for the purpose of establishing a school for their children. The trustees of the proposed school obtained from Huntsville founder Pleasant Gray and his wife, Hannah, a 5-acre . . . — — Map (db m180291) HM
Sam Houston died of pneumonia on July 26, 1863, at the age of 70. His funeral was held on July 27, 1863, in the upstairs parlor of his home, the Steamboat House, then located one-fourth mile to the east. At the service the minister read a poem that . . . — — Map (db m82311) HM
One of the earliest Baptist congregations in Texas, this church was organized in 1844 by the Rev Z.N. Morrell, who served as first pastor. The Rev. J.W.D. Creath, a missionary from Virginia, was the second, and the Rev. G.W. Baines, known now as an . . . — — Map (db m180311) HM
The first Walker County Courthouse was available for county Commissioners Court meetings in July 1848; the building was finally completed in the center of the Huntsville public square in 1850. Because of a defective foundation, a second courthouse . . . — — Map (db m29060) HM
Oakwood Cemetery is home to many grave markers from the year 1867 when yellow fever, one of the most dreaded diseases of the time, struck the county. The disease ravaged many cities across the United States. Texas remained relatively untouched until . . . — — Map (db m129622) HM
During the summer of 1911, the "State Residence" built by President H.C. Pritchett was moved from its original location to the Wilson lot, current site of the Lowman Student Center. While the residence was being remodeled for President Harry F. . . . — — Map (db m66320) HM
Thomas Henry Ball was born in Northumberland County, Virginia, in 1819, the son of The Rev. David Thomas and Hannah Henry (Gaskins) Ball. Following in his father's footsteps, Ball became a Methodist minister. While serving his first congregation in . . . — — Map (db m129692) HM
The present monument was erected by the State of Texas and unveiled on April 21, 1911, the 75th anniversary of the Battle of San Jacinto. Among several thousand spectators present were Houston family members, State officials, the two surviving . . . — — Map (db m82312) HM
Sam Houston once said that he settled in Huntsville because the hills reminded him of his boyhood home in Maryville, Tennessee. The hills which lured him and many other prominent people here are the result of a geological formation. The geography of . . . — — Map (db m180498) HM
Oakwood Cemetery was a gift to Huntsville from its founder, Pleasant Gray. In 1847 he deeded a 3.67-acre tract lying a quarter mile to the west as a "place of burial" for the community. The cemetery was gradually extended eastward by citizen . . . — — Map (db m180644) HM
In 1872, W.L. Holloway donated a tract of land to the Bath Community. A small building on the land served as school and sanctuary for area residents who established Union Hill Church that same year. The congregation's first trustees were Martin . . . — — Map (db m195023) HM
Seven Union Soldiers who died in the yellow fever epidemic of 1867 are buried here. They were sent to Huntsville during the reconstruction period to maintain order in Walker County four years after the soldiers had been in the penitentiary.
. . . — — Map (db m50222) HM
The earliest known inhabitants of this area were the Cenis and Bidai (Bedias) Indians. Spanish explorers began to arrive in 1542, followed by the French in 1687. The area was thinly populated by Spanish and Mexican settlers until the early 1830s . . . — — Map (db m111864) HM
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 . . . — — Map (db m111861) HM
These pots were used to wash clothes at the Eastham State Farm until 1952. There were four of these pots. See picture in window to right. — — Map (db m195747) HM
General of the army which won the war for Texas Independence, 1836, and first President of the Republic, 1836-1838, Sam Houston was one of the most controversial and colorful figures in Texas history.
In his eventful career, Houston had resided . . . — — Map (db m8040) HM
Gustavus Adair Wynne and Samuella Gibbs, who became civic and business leaders in Huntsville, married in 1883 and moved into this house, which they first built in the Queen Anne style. By 1917, they transformed the house into a classical revival . . . — — Map (db m180456) HM
