Gillespie County

The settlers asked for the county themselves: on December 15, 1847, 150 of them petitioned the legislature, suggesting the name Pierdenales or Germania. As first drawn it took in parts of present Blanco, Burnet, Llano and Mason counties, and five boundary changes, from the creation of Mason and Blanco counties in 1858 to a final redefinition in 1883, set its present limits. In 1850, 913 of its 1,235 White residents were of foreign extraction, nearly all German. From 1880 to 1992 the county voted for Democratic presidential candidates only in 1888, 1892, 1932 and 1964.

What the plaque says

Gillespie County The trails of roving Indians crossed these hills settled by German pioneers in 1846. A group of Mormons settled at Zodiac in 1847. Created February 23, 1848. Organized June 5, 1848. Named for Richard Addison Gillespie, a Texan from 1837, a defender of the Texas frontier, and captain in the Mexican War who fell at Monterrey, September 22, 1846. Fredericksburg, the county seat.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Vereins Kirche and Main Street — steps away
  The octagonal Society Church on Fredericksburg's market square, rebuilt in stone in the 1930s, beside a main street laid out like a Rhine village.
• National Museum of the Pacific War — 0.4 mi
  A museum of the war in the Pacific in Chester Nimitz's hometown, dedicated at his request to the two million who served with him, with a garden given by Japan.
• Fort Martin Scott — 2.4 mi
  An army post of 1848 on Barons Creek beside the German town, where soldiers kept the peace of a Comanche trade and paid the merchants in hard cash.
• Luckenbach — 9.6 mi
  A store, saloon and dance hall on Grape Creek that a humorist bought in 1971, declared a free state of mind, and turned into a pilgrimage for Texas music.

More markers nearby

• Market Square (Mark Platz) — steps away
• Old Central Drugstore — steps away
• Bethany Lutheran Church — steps away
• Fredericksburg Social Turn Verein — 0.2 mi