Historical Marker
The Southwell Company
San Antonio, Bexar County · Texas
Erected 2015
The firm has cast more than 16,000 Texas Historical Commission markers over six decades, and the family says Bill Southwell helped develop the commission's program in the early 1960s with John Ben Shepperd and Gov. John Connally. The text goes onto a large plastic negative, then into a mold of sand and clay. Aluminum heated to about 1,400 degrees is poured in, cooled for roughly half an hour, painted black, and shaved so the lettering shows bright. The family says Wilson Southwell helped make the stars and wreaths on the 1936 Centennial markers.
What the plaque says
The Southwell Company George T. Southwell (1870-1924), born on a Victoria County ranch, was the eldest son of Sarah Elizabeth (Phelps) and English native John T. Southwell. George ran a wholesale feed business and livery in Victoria and Yoakum and married Maggie Wilson in 1896. The couple moved to Matagorda County, where George was a rancher and rice farmer. He later opened a furniture and undertaking business in Bay City. In 1912, the family moved to San Antonio. In 1914, George Southwell bought the San Antonio Rubber Stamp Company, which began on Commerce Street in 1866. The company first produced stencils for wool and cotton shipments and then expanded to rubber stamps. George managed the company until his death in 1924. His son, Wilson P. Southwell, Sr. helped the business grow from three employees to more than fifty, establishing a foundry to cast metal signs and plaques for clients in several states. In 1953, the name of the business changed to The Southwell Company. The Southwell Company's products are found throughout the world and include stamps, plaques, signs, building seals and U.S. armed forces name tags. Among the companies most iconic works are their historical markers. They made bronze pieces for markers and monuments placed for the Texas Centennial in 1936, and since 1962 have produced thousands of official markers issued by the Texas Historical Commission. Additionally, The Southwell Company has produced thousands more historical markers and dedication plaques for cities, counties, and more than two dozen states. Founded 150 years ago and four generations in the same family, The Southwell Company continues its unique contribution to public history and the Texas landscape. (2016)
Where it stands
29.43342, -98.47990 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- The Alamo — 0.6 miMission San Antonio de Valero before it was a fort: a church its builders never finished, a thirteen-day siege in 1836, and the Army gable of 1850-52 that became its emblem.
- La Villita Historic Arts Village — 0.9 miThe little village across the river from the presidio, where Cos surrendered San Antonio in 1835, rebuilt by Depression-era youth crews as a working crafts village.
- San Antonio River Walk — 0.9 miA Depression-era park one level below downtown, built because San Antonio refused to pave its river after the 1921 flood, and designed by an architect the project later fired.
- San Fernando Cathedral — 1.1 miThe Canary Islanders' parish church on Main Plaza, where Bowie married and Santa Anna raised a red flag, rebuilt in Gothic Revival around the walls of the 1750s church.