Howard Bland, Sr.

Bland's title of colonel and his ventures outside Taylor are missing from the plaque. Wikipedia, citing the Taylor Daily Press, says he was born on May 5, 1848, and went back to Zanesville in 1880 to marry Augusta Schultz. It also ties him to Zella, a McMullen County townsite named for his daughter. The Handbook of Texas says the developers printed brochures describing a farmer's paradise, but never built the promised irrigation, and drought had discouraged settlers by 1917. Bland served in the Texas House in 1915 and 1916 and died on March 9, 1933.

What the plaque says

Howard Bland, Sr. (1848-1933) Born in Zanesville, Ohio, Howard Bland, Sr., came to Texas in 1878 and began raising sheep on his homestead near this site. An annual sheep shearing contest evolved into a community fair, and Bland donated land for the annual event. His other business interests included real estate, a commodities warehouse, a flour mill, and ice house, a hotel, a local power company, theater, and the Taylor Daily Press, an anti-prohibition newspaper. A community leader, he served on the city council and chamber of commerce, and was a member of the 34th Texas legislature. (1986)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Williamson County Courthouse — 19 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 — 19 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 — 19 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.
• LBJ Presidential Library — 29 mi
  A ten-story travertine archive on the University of Texas campus holding 45 million pages from a presidency of civil rights laws, the War on Poverty and Vietnam.

More markers nearby

• Dr. James Lee Dickey — 2.2 mi
• Tex Avery — 2.4 mi
• Bill Pickett — 2.4 mi
• City of Taylor — 2.4 mi