Rabb's Prairie

William Rabb's son Andrew first tried to farm this ground. He and a brother cleared land on the west side of the Colorado above the site of La Grange in 1823 and 1824, but raids drove them downriver to the Egypt settlement. Andrew later helped shape Fayette County. He represented the area at the Convention of 1833, petitioned for the county's organization in 1837, sat in the Third and Eighth congresses of the Republic and served as secretary of the Rutersville College trustees. He died in La Grange in 1869.

What the plaque says

Rabb's Prairie This portion of Fayette County is named for William Rabb (1770-1831), a prosperous miller from Pennsylvania who came to Texas in 1821 with members of his family. Rabb claimed a site on the east side of the Colorado River he had selected during an exploratory trip in 1819. He was a member of Stephen F. Austin's first colony in Texas, and recipient of one the earliest and largest land grants of more than 22,000 acres, of which 13,285 acres comprised Rabb's Prairie. Part of Rabb's agreement with Austin was to build a grist mill for future settlers of the colony. Two grinding stones for the mill weighing about one ton each were imported from Scotland and unloaded at the mouth of the Colorado River on the Gulf of Mexico. In order to transport the heavy stones to the site of the grist mill, Rabb constructed a wooden axle and attached a round stone on both ends to serve as wheels. He then hitched oxen to the vehicle and pulled it about 100 miles in 1831; Rabb died shortly afterward. Through the years his descendants played significant roles in the development of Texas. The community of Rabb's Prairie was named for this pioneer family. (1996)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas Wendish Heritage Museum — 12 mi
  A museum at Serbin of the Wends, a Slavic people from Lusatia whose congregation of nearly 600 crossed on the Ben Nevis in 1854, losing seventy-three to cholera on the way.
• Lake Somerville State Park and Trailway — 23 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.
• Bastrop State Park — 26 mi
  The westernmost loblolly pines in the United States, cut off from the East Texas forest by a hundred miles of post oak, burned almost entirely in 2011 and growing back.

More markers nearby

• James Seaton Lester — 3.9 mi
• Fayette County, C.S.A — 3.9 mi
• Fayette County — 4.0 mi
• Rutersville — 5.0 mi