Round Top

The Townsend family arrived from Florida in 1826, and theirs was the first name tied to the site. They founded a Presbyterian church, Florida Chapel, and a Masonic lodge, and the Handbook says the family sent more men to the battle of San Jacinto than any other. Joel Robinson, another Round Top man named on the stone, was the captor of Santa Anna, and his father, John Robinson, sat in the First Congress of Texas. Taylor, Ledbetter and Alexander were other early names; the first Round Top Academy stood on Ledbetter land.

What the plaque says

Round Top On the Old San Felipe Trail, in memory of John C. Robison, participant of the Battle of Velasco; Joel W. Robison, McHenry Winburn, Isaac Lafayette Hill, Spencer Burton Townsend, Stephen Townsend, Veterans of San Jacinto; J. T. Townsend, John P. Townsend of the San Jacinto Campaign; Mayers Fisher Jones of the Santa Fe and Snively Expeditions; John Rufus Alexander of the Mier Expedition, and other Pioneers who resided in the vicinity.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lake Somerville State Park and Trailway — 15 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.
• Texas Wendish Heritage Museum — 18 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.
• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 27 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.

More markers nearby

• Round Top Community — steps away
• Bernard Scherrer — steps away
• Nassau Plantation — 2.6 mi
• Town of Shelby — 6.5 mi