Hutto

The plaque calls Adam Orgain a former slave who settled here in 1855. Local histories say more. Texas Time Travel describes him as Hutto's first settler, placed on the prairie to watch over his enslaver's ranching and cattle interests, and Wikipedia says the same. The sources disagree on his birth year, 1835 or 1837, and one says he built a log house near Shiloh. Neither names his enslaver or says when he was freed. The railroad's arrival in 1876 brought the town, which took the name of James E. Hutto, its first postmaster.

What the plaque says

Hutto Located near Shiloh, one of the earliest villages in Williamson County, this area was settled in 1855 by J. E. Hutto (1824-1914) and Adam Orgain, a former slave. Hutto sold land for this townsite to the International & Great Northern Railroad in 1876. A post office was established in 1877 with Hutto as postmaster. By 1882, the town had a school and a Baptist church. By 1898, there were six churches, a Masonic lodge, newspaper, hotel, bank, two gins, and several stores. Hutto grew rapidly after Swedish immigrants turned nearby farms to cotton production. The town was incorporated in 1911. (1976)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• The Round Rock — 8.7 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.
• Inner Space Cavern — 9.5 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.
• Williamson County Courthouse — 10 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.
• Mount Bonnell — 20 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

• Hutto Evangelical Lutheran Church — 0.3 mi
• Hutto Baptist Church — 2.1 mi
• Major Robert McNutt — 2.9 mi
• Klattenhoff House — 3.1 mi