Bell County

The plaque counts mills, a hat factory and twelve Confederate companies. The Handbook counts people. In 1860 Bell County had 4,799 residents, 1,005 of them Black, and 179 slaveholders, two-thirds of whom held seven or fewer people. In 1859 the county had strongly backed Sam Houston, a Unionist, yet in 1861 it voted 495 to 198 for secession. From 1862 to 1865 some Union sympathizers and Confederate deserters still gathered at a place in the north that locals called Camp Safety.

What the plaque says

Bell County Settlement began on Lampasas River, 1847. Created Jan. 22, organized Aug. 1, 1850. Named for Peter Hansbrough Bell (1812-1898), native of Virginia; veteran of Battle of San Jacinto; served in Somervell expedition to stop Mexico's Raids into Texas; officer in Mexican War; Governor of Texas 1849-1853; U.S. Congressman, 1853-1857. First county seat Nolanville. Moved Dec. 16, 1851, to Belton. By 1860 population was 4,799. Sent 12 troop companies into Civil War. Furnished goods from flour mills, hat factory, tanyard, leather works, blacksmith shops, cabinet shop, beef slaughter pens. (1965)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum — 11 mi
  The Santa Fe depot of 1911 in a railroad town that began in 1880 as a construction camp, now a museum with locomotives and cars parked beside the active rail yard.
• Mother Neff State Park — 23 mi
  A Leon River park that grew from six acres Isabella Neff left the state in her 1921 will, where Civilian Conservation Corps Company 817 built a stone tower, a pavilion and roads in the 1930s.

More markers nearby

• Site of Dulaney's Mill — 3.4 mi
• Site of Early Belton House — 3.9 mi
• Peter Hansbrough Bell — 3.9 mi
• Bell County Courthouses — 3.9 mi