Robert A. Terrell

The plaque says Terrell was platted on land he surveyed; the Handbook of Texas tells it differently. After the Texas and Pacific came through in 1873, C. C. Nash and John G. Moore bought 320 acres in the J. W. Cude survey and laid out streets and lots, and the town took the name of Terrell, a pioneer whose farm lay on its western edge. His octagonal house later became the administration building for a string of schools on the homestead, beginning with W. B. Toon's college in 1897. Toon was Terrell's son-in-law.

What the plaque says

Robert A. Terrell (February 22, 1820 - March 8, 1881) A native of Tennessee, Robert Adams Terrell lived in Kentucky, Missouri, and Louisiana before coming to the Republic of Texas about 1840. A farmer and surveyor by trade, he was commissioned to locate headright land grants in several North Texas counties, receiving vast amounts of land as payment. He served the Republic of Texas as a soldier in several expeditions, and in 1861 enlisted in the Confederate Army. The town of Terrell, platted on land he surveyed, was named for him. His 1864 octagon-shaped house in Terrell is a Recorded Texas historic Landmark. (1994)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• No. 1 British Flying Training School Museum — 1.8 mi
  A free museum at Terrell's airport where about 2,200 RAF cadets learned to fly between 1941 and 1945, with logbooks, uniforms, letters and original training aircraft.
• Rockwall County Historical Foundation & Museum — 16 mi
  A small museum in Harry Myers Park that keeps the evidence on Rockwall's rock wall, sandstone dikes that geologists call natural and folk tales call built.

More markers nearby

• Frank Reaugh — steps away
• Texas Midland Railroad — 0.4 mi
• First United Methodist Church of Terrell — 0.6 mi
• Rockwall and Brin Church of Christ — 0.6 mi