Site of Owensville

Owensville governed Robertson County through the Civil War, and those years remade the county it governed. In 1861, 391 of 467 voters backed secession, and Company C of the Fourth Texas, part of Hood's Texas Brigade, was largely raised in the county. The Handbook of Texas says the enslaved population here more than doubled during the war, from 1,955 to 4,392, as planters from Arkansas and Louisiana moved in to keep the people they held from confiscation. Emancipation in 1865 then erased nearly half of the county's taxable property, and planters' wealth fell with it.

What the plaque says

Site of Owensville Robertson County's third county seat was located here, 1855-69, on land given by D. H. Love (1816-66). The town was Owensville, named for Harrison Owen (1803-96), who was the first county clerk, 1838-47. Public officials, doctors, lawyers, businesses moved here and town thrived. It was on Houston-Waco mail, stage, and freighting road. As Civil War (1861-65) county seat, this place armed and dispatched soldiers, and cared for civilians. After Houston & Texas Central Railway bypassed Owensville in 1868, county records were moved to Calvert. Owensville Cemetery, oldest in county, marks townsite. (1974)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Calvert — 11 mi
  A railroad cotton town of 1868 on State Highway 6 that claimed the largest cotton gin in the world and elected Black men to county and state office during Reconstruction.
• Milam County Courthouse and Jail — 31 mi
  Cameron's 1892 Renaissance Revival courthouse and the 1895 St. Louis-built jail beside it, now the county museum, are listed together on the National Register.

More markers nearby

• Franklin — 3.9 mi
• Franklin Cemetery — 4.5 mi
• New Baden — 5.5 mi
• Rev. Robert Crawford — 6.0 mi