Dalrymple, William Cornelius

The plaque lists offices; the Handbook of Texas adds what Dalrymple did with them. At the Constitutional Convention of 1866 and in the Senate of the Eleventh Legislature, he was an outspoken opponent of Black equality and suffrage, wanting Black Texans kept to the station of "hewers of wood and drawers of water." He also led gold-hunting expeditions with Jacob Snively in 1866 and 1867; Indians killed the first party's horses and wounded Dalrymple. In 1871 he helped negotiate with the Methodist Church to bring Southwestern University to Georgetown.

What the plaque says

Dalrymple, William Cornelius (August 3, 1814 - March 29, 1898) North Carolina native William Cornelius Dalrymple served in the Texas Revolutionary forces and as a Texas Ranger during the 1830s. He married Elizabeth Wilbarger in Bastrop County, Texas, in 1840, and settled on the San Gabriel River in 1846. He served Williamson County as one of six commissioners to select the county seat, as Tax Assessor/Collector, and as State Representative in 1855 and 1857. In 1860 Texas Governor Sam Houston appointed him his aide-de-camp and Commander in Chief of the Texas Militia. In 1865 he served as State Senator and delegate to Texas' Constitutional Convention. (1995)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Williamson County Courthouse — 0.9 mi
  The fifth Williamson County courthouse, a Beaux Arts building by C. H. Page, rises over a Georgetown square of more than 50 Victorian-era buildings.
• Inner Space Cavern — 1.4 mi
  A Georgetown cave found in 1963 when highway engineers drilled test holes, holding Pleistocene fossils and 72-degree rooms that visitors reach by an artificial tunnel.
• The Round Rock — 7.8 mi
  A table-shaped stone in Brushy Creek gave Round Rock its name in 1854; the Chisholm Trail crossed the creek near it, and Old Town stayed behind when the railroad pulled the town east.
• Mount Bonnell — 22 mi
  Austin's old lookout over the Colorado, named by an 1838 traveler, picnicked on by George and Libbie Custer, and reached by a 1939 flight of about 100 limestone steps.

More markers nearby

• Negro Fine Arts School — 0.6 mi
• St. John's United Methodist Church — 0.6 mi
• Original Site of Southwestern University — 0.6 mi
• Jessie Daniel Ames — 0.7 mi