City of Caldwell

Caldwell's Reconstruction years were its most dangerous. A company of State Police, almost entirely Black, was stationed here to protect everyone's life and civil rights, freedmen included. They kept polls and courts open but were too few to stop the violence. In July 1868 an armed mob dragged a freedman named Wilson, the county registrar, from his bed at night and hanged him, mutilated his body and threw it into the Brazos. A Ku Klux Klan cell operated in the county, and officers could not bring such killers to justice.

What the plaque says

City of Caldwell In 1840 the Republic of Texas Congress annexed to Milam County all of Washington County north of Yegua Creek and west of the Brazos River. The name Caldwell, which honored Mathew "Old Paint" Caldwell, a noted pioneer and a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, was chosen for a settlement that would become the seat of a future county. Following a land title dispute, this site was selected for the proposed town. Located on the Old San Antonio Road, it had been settled earlier by Virginia native Lewis L. Chiles, a veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto who had operated a trading post on Davidson Creek. George B. Erath platted the town of Caldwell in 1840. Streets running parallel to the Old San Antonio road were named for native animals and intersecting streets were named for the commissioners who had selected the townsite. When Burleson County was created six years later, Caldwell became the permanent seat of government. Incorporated in 1891, Caldwell developed as a major agricultural shipping center with the completion of area rail lines in 1890 and 1912. Since the 1840s the city has played a vital role in the region through its steady commercial growth and rich heritage. (1892)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lake Somerville State Park and Trailway — 18 mi
  Two park units on an 11,000-acre lake between Austin and College Station, joined by a thirteen-mile trailway for hikers, cyclists and riders with primitive camps along the way.
• George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum — 21 mi
  The library of the forty-first president on the Texas A&M campus, opened in 1997, where George and Barbara Bush and their daughter Robin are buried in a family plot on the grounds.
• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 25 mi
  A crossroads north of Brenham that was the richest town in Texas when it won Baylor University in 1845, refused the railroad, and lost the college to Waco and Belton in 1886.
• Milam County Courthouse and Jail — 28 mi
  Cameron's 1892 Renaissance Revival courthouse and the 1895 St. Louis-built jail beside it, now the county museum, are listed together on the National Register.

More markers nearby

• Burleson County — steps away
• John Mitchell — steps away
• Early Settlers of Burleson County in the Texas War for Independence — steps away
• Burleson County C.S.A. — steps away