Captain William Walter Taylor

Taylor's birthplace was a county seat that vanished. Clinton, on the Guadalupe five miles southwest of present Cuero, grew near Richard Chisholm's ferry of about 1839 and, after trading the seat back and forth with Cameron, became DeWitt County's seat by an 1850 election. The Sutton-Taylor feud began there on Christmas Eve 1868, when Bill Sutton killed Buck Taylor, and ended there in December 1875. The railroad's 1873 arrival at Cuero, across the river, did the town more harm. Cuero became county seat in 1876, the post office closed in 1886, and by 1900 little of Clinton remained.

What the plaque says

Captain William Walter Taylor Grandson of Josiah Taylor and grandnephew of Creed Taylor, Indian fighters who took part in Battle of Bandera Pass, 1841. Born at Clinton, Texas; in 1889 he moved to Kimble County, to begin ranching with an uncle. In 1898 became county sheriff. His six terms included critical period of 1902 land rush. He was appointed Texas Ranger Captain in 1917 by Governor W. P. Hobby; he served ten years, chiefly at Ranger, Brownsville, and Borger. Recorded 1967

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Kimble County Historical Museum — 1.0 mi
  A free county museum in Junction, the town at the meeting of the North and South Llano, with the papers, photographs and tools of a ranching county.
• Eckert James River Bat Cave Preserve — 27 mi
  A limestone cave on the James River where about four million Mexican free-tailed bats raise their young each summer, kept open to visitors by a family's gift.
• Fort McKavett State Historic Site — 31 mi
  The post Sherman called the prettiest in Texas, home to soldiers of all four Buffalo Soldier regiments and then to a town that lived in its buildings until 1973.

More markers nearby

• Vicinity of Bradbury Settlement — steps away
• Isaac Kountz — 0.3 mi
• College Street Church of Christ — 0.8 mi
• First Baptist Church of Junction — 0.8 mi