Somervell County

Alexander Somervell was a Maryland-born merchant who ran a store at San Felipe with James F. Perry and sat in the Senate of the Republic. Sam Houston picked him to lead the 1842 expedition partly because he moved slowly and would not cross the Rio Grande. Afterward he became collector of customs at the port of Calhoun near Indianola and helped develop the town of Saluria on Matagorda Island. In January 1854 he drowned, and his body was found lashed to the timbers of a capsized boat carrying a considerable sum of money. His grave is unknown.

What the plaque says

Somervell County Named for Alexander Somervell (1796-1854), native of Maryland, veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto, secretary of War under Texas President David G. Burnet; commanded the 1842 Somervell Expedition seeking to end Mexican invasions of Texas Republic. Region was in old Brazos Land District. Home of Wacos and other Indians. First white settler was Charles Barnard, 1848. First cotton crop and first tannery were introduced during Civil War, 1861-1865. Created from land in south end of Hood County and organized in 1875; Glen Rose (founded as Barnard's Mill), county seat. (1965)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Dinosaur Valley State Park — 3.5 mi
  Theropod and sauropod trackways of about 113 million years ago in the bed of the Paluxy River, a National Natural Landmark where R. T. Bird found the first distinct sauropod tracks in 1937.
• Cleburne State Park — 12 mi
  A 1930s Civilian Conservation Corps park on the old Chisholm Trail crossing country, with a spring-fed lake, a hand-carved three-tiered spillway and a CCC bridge in Johnson County.
• Granbury Courthouse Square — 14 mi
  A National Register square of limestone storefronts around W. C. Dodson's Second Empire courthouse, whose clock tower citizens saved after a 1968 tornado.
• Acton State Historic Site — 15 mi
  The smallest state historic site in Texas, a grave plot holding Elizabeth Crockett, widow of David Crockett, under a 1913 statue of a pioneer woman shading her eyes toward the west.

More markers nearby

• Post Oak Community — 4.4 mi
• Mitchell Bend Cemetery — 6.8 mi
• George's Creek Baptist Church — 8.1 mi
• Chalk Mountain Cemetery — 10 mi