Mount Vernon

The man who made Mount Vernon a county seat was also, by the Handbook of Texas, the largest slaveholder in Washington County. In the fall of 1841 John Stamps used his influence to pull the courts away from Washington, in the far northeastern corner of a shrinking county. The town sat on the stagecoach road between Washington and Houston. When Brenham, Independence, Turkey Creek and Mount Vernon contested the seat, Mount Vernon dropped out, and Brenham won by three votes after J. D. Giddings rode to every neighborhood to speak for it.

What the plaque says

Mount Vernon The rural settlement of Mount Vernon, named for the Virginia home of President George Washington, served as county seat of Washington County from 1841 to 1844. John Stamps (1798-1867), an early area settler, is credited with founding and naming the Mount Vernon community. Stamps, who owned vast acreage in this vicinity, represented Washington County in the Eighth Congress of the Republic of Texas in 1843-44. At its height, Mount Vernon included a log courthouse and jail, homes, businesses, churches, and a school. An estimated twenty families lived in the community. An election held in 1844 resulted in the relocation of the county seat to Brenham. The loss of county seat status, coupled with the improvement of transportation as new roads were built enabling easy travel to Brenham, resulted in the demise of the Mount Vernon township by the 1880s. Families gradually moved away, and by 1900 all that remained of the community were a few building foundations. Eventually, the town site reverted to farmland. Although no physical remnants of Mount Vernon exist, it remains a significant part of Washington County history. (1992)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 9.8 mi
  A crossroads north of Brenham that was the richest town in Texas when it won Baylor University in 1845, refused the railroad, and lost the college to Waco and Belton in 1886.
• Lake Somerville State Park and Trailway — 16 mi
  Two park units on an 11,000-acre lake between Austin and College Station, joined by a thirteen-mile trailway for hikers, cyclists and riders with primitive camps along the way.
• Round Top and Festival Hill — 17 mi
  A German village on the old La Bahía Road, named for a house tower, with an 1867 stone church, a Fourth of July kept since 1851 and a concert hall a pianist built without blueprints.
• Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site — 20 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

• St. Peter's Lutheran Church — 2.9 mi
• Birthplace of Hedwig T. Kniker — 2.9 mi
• Eben-Ezer Evangelical Lutheran Church — 3.5 mi
• Gideon Lincecum — 4.0 mi