In Memory of Robert Jones Rivers

Rivers's speeches were never written down, so the Handbook of Texas leans on one story. In 1840 he agreed to speak in New Orleans for the Whig candidate William Henry Harrison but asked to stay off the program, then answered from the crowd dressed as a flatboatman before being called to the platform. His property near Columbus, valued at $150,000 in 1851, made him one of Colorado County's wealthiest residents, and he served as attorney to the commission examining land titles west of the Nueces. He died in Georgetown's Ake Hotel and was great-grandfather of explorer Richard E. Byrd.

What the plaque says

In Memory of Robert Jones Rivers Pioneer patriot, lawyer and orator. Born in Virginia in 1806. Died in Georgetown, December 14, 1854. His eloquence protected the helpless, his wit charmed all. Erected by the State of Texas 1936

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Williamson County Courthouse — steps away
  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 — 2.1 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 — 8.6 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 — 23 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

• Judge Greenleaf Fisk — steps away
• Chief Justice John Edward Hickman — steps away
• Williamson County — steps away
• In Memory of George Washington Glasscock, Sr. — steps away