Throckmorton County

In 1856 Lt. Newton C. Givens built a stone ranch house near the old California Trail and the Haskell county line, then the last house between the Texas and New Mexico settlements. The Butterfield Overland Mail crossed the county, with Franz Station a well-known stop, and Williamsburg was first chosen as county seat. The 1860 census found only 124 people here, and the county stayed unorganized for nearly twenty years. Early Throckmorton had a Mr. Tadley's store and C. A. (Alex) Housley's restaurant and stage stand. In 1880 the county's sixty-eight ranches and farms ran almost 32,000 cattle.

What the plaque says

Formed from Fannin and Bosque counties. Created January 13, 1858. Organized March 18, 1879. Named in Honor of Dr. William Edward Throckmorton, 1795-1843, a revolutionary soldier. Father of James Webb Throckmorton, who became Governor of Texas in 1866. County seat, Throckmorton

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Griffin State Historic Site — 19 mi
  The ruins of an 1867 cavalry post on a plateau above the Clear Fork of the Brazos, judged unfit for habitation and used nine more years, now home to the official state longhorn herd.
• Fort Belknap — 25 mi
  The 1851 northern anchor of the first Texas frontier forts, on the Brazos below Newcastle, a Butterfield stop and the post beside the Brazos Reservation until its people were driven out in 1859.

More markers nearby

• Camp Cooper, C.S.A. — 1.0 mi
• Great Western Trail — 1.8 mi
• Bush Knob Massacre — 7.0 mi
• Round Timber Community — 17 mi