Setting the scene:
Republic of Texas President Mirabeau B. Lamar made a January 1839 call for men to form militias to range the frontier and protect settlers from Indian raids and lawlessness. Two Ranger companies gathered at Ft. Milam near . . . — — Map (db m290677) HM
Mary Elizabeth (Mollie) Wright Armstrong was instrumental in establishing optometry as a profession in Texas during the first half of the 20th century. A native of Bell County, she briefly attended Baylor Female College in Belton, where she met her . . . — — Map (db m248289) HM
The area now known as Temple, Texas, was located near the boundary between settlers and native hunting grounds. American Indians of the Caddo, Comanche, Shawnee, Delaware, Kickapoo, and other nomadic tribes were drawn to the fertile plains among the . . . — — Map (db m290676) HM
Indian warriors mingled among the Rangers while they quickly surrounded them at the summit of a high ridge. The groups came into close quarters, and the parties clashed in this second skirmish. One eyewitness later reported that the warriors were . . . — — Map (db m290671) HM
In the final battle, the primary chief led his warriors for a last ditch attack, and they almost overran the ravine. Private James M. Robinette shot him, and the attack fell apart as the chief's braves tried to retrieve him. Many fell while . . . — — Map (db m290670) HM
The chase continued for another three miles, and the captain ordered a charge. The Rangers' horses were weighed down, so the lighter, quicker Indians outran them, and the tired mounts of the Rangers could not keep up. Deeper into unsettled land, the . . . — — Map (db m290673) HM
A noted historian, writer and public figure in Texas during the early 20th century, J. Evetts Haley was born in Belton (Bell County). He grew up in Midland, working on area ranches and competing in rodeos. Haley attended Midland College and West . . . — — Map (db m245909) HM
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 . . . — — Map (db m150627) HM
Pioneers who settled here in the 1840s and established the town of Hopewell faced many hardships, including Indian raids. Wofford and Mary Johnson and their daughter were killed by Comanches nearby in 1863. They were buried at this site near the . . . — — Map (db m4257) HM
A native of Illinois, John Leggett Marshall came to Texas with his family in 1829. A farmer and blacksmith, he enlisted in the army in March 1836 to fight in Texas' War for Independence from Mexico. A participant in the San Jacinto campaign, he and . . . — — Map (db m286904) HM
A native of Louisiana, Elisha Allen moved with his parents in 1827 to what is now Orange County. When the Texas Revolution began, Allen joined the army and fought at the Siege of Bexar, Dec. 5-6, 1835. He explored the Texas frontier with a survey . . . — — Map (db m3208) HM
Born near Fredericksburg, Virginia, Bernard Moore Temple was a noted railroad engineer. In 1862, he enlisted in the Virginia artillery, joining the Confederate Army, where he acquired engineering experience in artillery and ordnance. Temple made . . . — — Map (db m90018) HM
Anna Laura Cole was born on October 27, 1909 in the farming community of Turney, Texas. Cole finished high school and attended Lon Morris College for a year before enrolling at Scott & White School of Nursing in 1928. After graduating in 1931 as . . . — — Map (db m207358) HM
Elijah Sterling Clack Robertson was born in Giles County, Tennessee, August 23, 1820. His father, Empresario S.C. Robertson, brought him to Texas to learn Spanish and to help him in his land office translating and copying land grants to Spanish. For . . . — — Map (db m212459) HM
Thomas Edison Dixon, M.D., was an African-American physician committed to serving God and his community in a time dominated by white men. Dixon, or "Tommy" to friends and family, was born in August 1890 in Hearne, Texas. He first attended Bishop . . . — — Map (db m293214) HM
James Anderson and his wife, Elizabeth Caroline Barnard, natives of Buncombe County, North Carolina, married there in 1821 The couple had 15 children. Anderson was a farmer and in 1835 migrated to Missouri. He joined the Mercer Colony and migrated . . . — — Map (db m203268) HM
Born to Cyrus C. Campbell (1810-1883) and Rebecca Elizabeth Robbins (1818-1846), Cyrus Maxwell Campbell was raised near Travis (Austin County). At the age of 21, he enlisted in the Confederate Army at the beginning of the Civil War, serving in the . . . — — Map (db m207091) HM
Archibald Johnson (A.J.) Rose was born in 1830 in Caswell County, North Carolina. Shortly after his birth, the family left North Carolina in a covered wagon for Missouri. At the age of 18, Rose traveled to California during the Gold Rush and found . . . — — Map (db m263536) HM
To understand the settlement of Salado we begin with the time when empresarios, such as Stephen F. Austin and Sterling C. Robertson, obtained land grants from Mexico to colonize Texas. Empresarios contracted with Mexico to bring settlers to Texas in . . . — — Map (db m212460) HM
Born in Gainesville, Texas, Arthur C. Scott graduated from Bellevue Medical College in 1886 and won an internship at the Western Pennsylvania Hospital. Returning to Gainesville, he married Maud M. Sherwood in 1889 and began a private medical . . . — — Map (db m207341) HM
Previously known as Williamson Branch Graveyard and Temple City Cemetery, Hillcrest Cemetery began as a rural family graveyard before eventually becoming a large, urban burial ground before the establishment of Temple area residents began to use . . . — — Map (db m207086) HM
John Churchill Gaines Blackburn (1832-1912) was born in Tennessee and came to Texas in 1853. He and his wife Mary Ann Chambers Blackburn (1831-1908) first stopped with other family members in Williamson County, then moved to Bell County in 1854. . . . — — Map (db m287762) HM
A Texas native plant garden
Texas native plants are hardy, less susceptible to pests and diseases and unlikely to escape and become invasive. North American native plants, defined as those that existed here without human introduction, are . . . — — Map (db m212452) HM
The Rev. Early Greathouse (1810-1885) was ordained to the ministry in Georgia in 1846. He moved to Alabama in 1852, where he served in the state legislature and the Constitutional Conventions of 1865 and 1867.
In 1870 Greathouse and his family . . . — — Map (db m286902) HM
Jan Zabcik Sr. (1810–1881), his wife, Anna Hruska (1825–1900), and daughters Johanna and Katerina traveled to Galveston, Texas from Moravia in 1856 along with Jan’s brother, Martin Zabcik, and sister, Anna Zabcik. Once in Texas, the Zabciks made . . . — — Map (db m290683) HM
Captain Henry T. Waskow (1918-1943) of Belton was a company commander in the 36th Division. He joined the Texas National Guard, Company I, 143rd Infantry, 36th Division in 1935 and was called into active service in 1940. Beloved by his men, Waskow . . . — — Map (db m212167) HM
First settled in 1854 by five families, the county, created and organized 1856, was named for Comanche Indians, Lords of Texas frontier, who were losing hunting grounds to settlers.
First county seat was Cora. Comanche has been county seat . . . — — Map (db m98274) HM
Elias R. Wightman, a surveyor in Stephen F. Austin's first colony, returned to the United States in 1828 to recruit additional settlers. Two colonists who joined him in New York were his sister Esther (1788-1863) and her husband Noah Griffith . . . — — Map (db m155615) HM
Settlers began moving to this area in the 1830s, when Texas was a Republic, but the town of Bartlett was not established until the 1870s. The founders were J. Edward Pietzsch and Capt. John T. Bartlett, for whom the community was named. In 1882 the . . . — — Map (db m29040) HM
A native of South Carolina, Wilson Van Dyke served as a member of the Somervell Expedition, which was organized in 1842 to expel the Mexican Army from Texas. Under command of Col. W.S. Fisher, he crossed the Rio Grande and was captured. A survivor . . . — — Map (db m29382) HM
Formed from portions of Travis, Williamson and Bell counties. Created Feb. 5, 1852; organized August 28, 1852. Named in honor of David G. Burnet (1788-1870), president of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Texas in 1836. County seat, . . . — — Map (db m233324) HM
Founded 1854, as Troy. Later renamed in honor of a Miss Beeman of Bell County. In 1856 organization of Comanche County — then extending farther south and east than today's boundaries — Cora became county seat. A log cabin residence in . . . — — Map (db m162144) HM
The Belton Farmers Co-op Gin, built in 1927 along Nolan Creek, is a rare example of a surviving brick cotton gin in Central Texas. It was built by an association of local cotton farmers to replace an earlier gin that had burned down on the site in . . . — — Map (db m149427) HM
A distinctive Victorian house, associated with one of the historic private schools of Bell County. Charles H. Wedemeyer (1857-1938), a former teacher and administrator of Baylor University, Crane College, and Waco University, moved here with his . . . — — Map (db m286907) HM
Present-day Holland has its origins in three different settlements. Settlers first came here during the 1830s to farm the area’s fertile soil. A community named Mountain Home (0.5 mi SE) formed along Darrs Creek and included a school, church, . . . — — Map (db m75700) HM
Milton Wesley Damron (1825-1887), an early settler and Salado public servant, was born in Tennessee and came to Texas as part of the Mercer Colony. He arrived in the 1840s and shortly afterwards married Sarah Pennington. When original settlement . . . — — Map (db m29350) HM
Rev. Denman was born in Gumlock Creek, Franklin Co., Georgia on May 8, 1803 and moved to Cherokee County, Texas with his first wife, Elizabeth Randle (1805-1861), in 1849. There he established a large plantation and ran a general store with the help . . . — — Map (db m203301) HM
Salado was officially establish in 1859 when Col. E.S.C Robertson donated land for a townsite and for a college. Col. Hermon Aiken drew a plat for the town, which developed along its main street. However, there had been activity here long before . . . — — Map (db m79922) HM
Eustace Maurice Hutchens was born in 1893 near Bartlett, Texas and attended school through the sixth grade at Indian Creek School. As with most families during the early twentieth century, who relied on farming to support themselves and feed the . . . — — Map (db m203302) HM
This burial ground has served area settlements since the mid-1800s. Settlers came here to farm the rich Blackland prairie soil, though the area was sparsely settled prior to 1850, when the Austin-Belton-Waco stagecoach run established a stop along . . . — — Map (db m293216) HM
The Stockton Family Cemetery is located on land originally granted in 1859 by Texas governor Hardin R. Runnels to Moses Allen, a veteran of the Siege of Bexar. Douglas Hayden Stockton and his wife Mary Elizabeth (White) brought their family to Bell . . . — — Map (db m28455) HM
A large building erected here 1850, by Mrs. Sarah Lawler (1807-1890). In this structure, little more than a shed, Mrs. Lawler boarded workmen who were surveying and building Nolanville (later renamed Belton), county seat of newly-created Bell . . . — — Map (db m305381) HM
Although this cemetery is the last remnant of the Blackburn Estate, it gives visitors a glimpse of the history of a long line of Texans who served in many wars and once owned land that now makes up part of Fort Hood. John Porter Blackburn, veteran . . . — — Map (db m287756) HM
Break in mountain chain from Lampasas River to Nolan Creek. Route to one of oldest Indian trails in Southwest, and escape point for Comanches after last raid in Bell County. On March 14-16, 1859, the Indians killed four settlers, including John . . . — — Map (db m174960) HM
Revered as a pioneer in modern dance, Alvin Ailey was an internationally-recognized choreographer credited for incorporating African American movements into 20th century concert dance. Ailey was born in Rogers, a small rural community in eastern . . . — — Map (db m286929) HM
Salado College professor and principal James Lowry Smith was a progressive leader in education. He received degrees at Baylor and served in the Civil War before beginning his tenure at Salado College in 1863. Despite challenges including low . . . — — Map (db m203270) HM
James Ferguson, son of a Methodist preacher, and Miriam Wallace, daughter of a wealthy farmer, were Bell County natives. They married in 1899 and later settled with their two daughters in Temple. James, running as “Farmer Jim”, won the . . . — — Map (db m25874) HM
In 1854, four years after the county was organized, a 2-story structure of logs was built on this site, to serve as the first Bell County jail. That log jail was replaced in 1873 by this building of native limestone.
In 1874, vigilantes from . . . — — Map (db m193835) HM
Alice Gray Hamblen, born March 14, 1846, in Mississippi, and her husband, William Kroger Hamblen (1817-1902), moved to Salado in 1868 and quickly became involved with the local private school, Salado College. Alice was passionate about the . . . — — Map (db m203306) HM
Organized in 1958, the Cultural Activities Center (CAC) in Temple is among the oldest multi-disciplinary arts organizations in Texas. During the 1950s, there was a national upsurge in the arts, which coincided with Temple’s post-war population . . . — — Map (db m151057) HM
Soon after the establishment of Temple as a railroad town in 1882, the Rev. L.J. Mackey organized the Saint Love All Baptist Church. The early mission of the church was to serve African American railroad workers in the new town. It was located on . . . — — Map (db m207288) HM
In January 1846, Francis L. Mudd received one-third of a league of land in this area along the Lampasas River. Four years later, the property became part of the newly created Bell County, carved out of Milam County, the next year, Michael Young . . . — — Map (db m304758) HM
Alice Florence Sheriff
Daughter of B.F.J. Davis and Margaret Lucinda Ray born July 24, 1885, Bell County, Texas. Came to Reed community, Greer County, 1900 with her parents, brothers, and sisters in a covered wagon. Attended business college . . . — — Map (db m288803) HM
The Confederate tradition in Bell County goes back to the War between the States itself. The citizens of Bell County were very pro-Southern in their opinions. Voters in Bell County overwhelming voted for Texas to leave the Union. In a state wide . . . — — Map (db m152300) HM
South Belton cemetery is located on Kinney Hill on the south side of Nolan Creek. Bell County and Belton were formed in early 1850. The cemetery was established soon after. The oldest remaining marked death date is May 21, 1851, when Elizabeth . . . — — Map (db m152297) HM
Bethel Primitive Baptist Church originated in the Palo Alto Community, which was located about 3.5 miles northeast of present Killeen. Organized about 1864, the congregation met in a Union Church building shared with other denominations.
When . . . — — Map (db m234566) HM
Pleasant Hill Cemetery has served the citizens of this area since 1855 and is one of the oldest cemeteries in Bell County. The first person to be interred at the site was J. Carmack (d. 1855). Carmack was buried on the farm of pioneer settler . . . — — Map (db m288759) HM
During World War II, Temple native Keifer Marshall, Jr. (1925-) served in the United States Marine Corps, 3rd Marine Division, 9th Regiment, F Company, 2nd Battalion, as a rifleman. During February and March of 1945, Marshall saw heavy combat on the . . . — — Map (db m212164) HM
Formed from Bell County
Created February 4, 1854
Organized March 4, 1854
Named in Honor of
James Coryell
Born in Tennessee in 1796
Member of the Bowie Expedition
tο the old San Saba Silver
Mines in 1831
A Texas . . . — — Map (db m217503) HM
Thin black lines indicate changes in relevance. Between each pair of lines entries are ordered geographically but all have the same relevance.
* Inflectional forms of words are their plurals, singulars, and possessives as well as gramatical tenses and similar variations.
