Williamson County

The supplemental plaque's percentages come from census counts. The Handbook of Texas says the 1850 census found 1,379 white residents and 155 enslaved people in the county, and that three families held fifteen or more. By 1860 the number of enslaved people had grown to 891, six times as many, while the white population tripled to 3,638. Freed people formed several new communities after the war, and in 1933 Black families were 442 of the county's 944 families on relief, though Blacks were only 16 percent of the population.

What the plaque says

Williamson County Created March 13, 1848, and organized by a special committee approved by Gov. George T. Wood and the 2nd Legislature of the State of Texas, with Georgetown designated as county seat. The county was named for Robert McAlpin Williamson (nicknamed "Three-Legged Willie", because of his pegleg), a veteran of Battle of San Jacinto, and one of the original members of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Texas. Lying in the Brazos River watershed and in basin of San Gabriel River, county has widely varied soils of blackland, limestone, and prairie types. Before the creation of Williamson County, settlements were situated at Tumlinson's Fort, Kenney's Fort, and other locations. Early mills made lumber, flour, and cloth. Southwestern University, heir to charter granted by the Republic of Texas in 1840 to Rutersville College, was established in Georgetown in 1877. Settlers were mainly of Anglo-American, Czech, German, Mexican, and Swedish ethnic groups. Eight incorporated towns and many smaller communities have developed. Population increased to 38,000 (with 15,000 registered voters) by 1970. This courthouse -- built in 1910 at cost of $96,000 -- is the third for the county. C.H. Page was architect. (1970) Supplemental plaque: African Americans, the largest ethnic group among pioneer settlers, comprised ten percent of the county's population in 1850 and more than nineteen percent by 1860.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Williamson County Courthouse — steps away
  The fifth Williamson County courthouse, a Beaux Arts building by C. H. Page, rises over a Georgetown square of more than 50 Victorian-era buildings.
• Inner Space Cavern — 2.1 mi
  A Georgetown cave found in 1963 when highway engineers drilled test holes, holding Pleistocene fossils and 72-degree rooms that visitors reach by an artificial tunnel.
• The Round Rock — 8.6 mi
  A table-shaped stone in Brushy Creek gave Round Rock its name in 1854; the Chisholm Trail crossed the creek near it, and Old Town stayed behind when the railroad pulled the town east.
• Mount Bonnell — 23 mi
  Austin's old lookout over the Colorado, named by an 1838 traveler, picnicked on by George and Libbie Custer, and reached by a 1939 flight of about 100 limestone steps.

More markers nearby

• In Memory of George Washington Glasscock, Sr. — steps away
• Ku Klux Klan Trials — steps away
• In Memory of Robert Jones Rivers — steps away
• Judge Greenleaf Fisk — steps away