Grimes County

By 1870 the county this 1936 stone describes was nearly 60 percent Black, and its politics showed it. Grimes backed Edmund J. Davis in 1869, stayed Republican after Democrats retook the state in 1873, and sent Black legislators to eight state seats between 1871 and 1883. When Populists courting Black voters won the 1896 and 1898 county elections, Democrats formed a secret society, the White Man's Union. Its members murdered several Black Populist leaders, and a mob wounded the Populist sheriff in Anderson. Many Black residents left after 1900, and the Union picked county officials until 1958.

What the plaque says

Grimes County On road used 1690 by Spanish explorer Alonso de Leon. In 1821 Andrew Millican began settlement. Henry Fanthorp opened his inn 1834, a post office 1835. Kenneth Anderson, last Vice-President, Republic of Texas, died at Fanthorp's, 1845. After his burial here town was named for him. County created and organized 1846. Named in honor of Jesse Grimes (1788-1866), a signer of Declaration of Independence and member of Congress, Republic of Texas. Anderson was made the county seat. During Civil War, 1861-1865, had a gun factory, furnished troops, food, cotton.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fanthorp Inn State Historic Site — 0.4 mi
  A cedar-log dogtrot cabin of 1834 on the road through Anderson that grew into a seventeen-room inn and post office for travelers of the Republic, kept by one family until 1976.
• Navasota — 9.2 mi
  A railroad and cotton town where the La Bahia Road crossed the Navasota River, scarred by an 1865 explosion and yellow fever, and the home ground of the songster Mance Lipscomb.
• Star of the Republic Museum — 15 mi
  A star-shaped museum of the Republic of Texas years, 1836 to 1846, built at Washington-on-the-Brazos after a Brenham campaign and opened on March 1, 1970.
• Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site — 15 mi
  The townsite on the Brazos where delegates met in a cold, unfinished hall in March 1836 to declare Texas independent, with Independence Hall rebuilt and Anson Jones's Barrington farm worked as in 1850.

More markers nearby

• In Memory of Colonel Benjamin Fort Smith and All Other Pioneers — steps away
• Grimes County, C.S.A. — steps away
• Orphans Friend Lodge No. 17 Ancient Free & Accepted Masons — steps away
• Fanthorp Inn — 0.4 mi