Wilson County

From 1866 herds were driven to DeWitt County and on up the Chisholm Trail; John O. Dewees, whose ranch reached into western Wilson County, and Jim F. Ellison of Lockhart drove 20,000 to 40,000 head a year in the 1870s and more than 400,000 before their partnership ended in 1877. Wire fencing closed the open range in the early 1880s, and in the drought of 1883 fence cutting centered on the 40,000-acre Houston and Dilworth ranch. Legislators in 1868-69 approved renaming the county Cibolo, but the name was never applied.

What the plaque says

Wilson County created February 13, 1860; organized August 6, 1860; named in honor of James Charles Wilson 1816-1861; member of the Mier Expedition; district clerk of Brazoria County, 1844; Senator from Matagorda County; Floresville, the county seat.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Mission Espada and the Espada Aqueduct — 22 mi
  The southernmost San Antonio mission and the oldest Spanish aqueduct in the United States, still carrying river water over Sixmile Creek to the fields after nearly three centuries.
• Mission San Juan — 23 mi
  The mission near the river bend where the San Antonio got its name in 1691, with an unfinished church foundation and farm fields still watered by an eighteenth-century acequia.
• San Antonio Missions National Historical Park — 25 mi
  Four working parish churches on the Mission Trail south of downtown, with the visitor center at Mission San Jose, the Queen of the Missions, and the descendants who still worship there.
• Mission Concepción — 27 mi
  A stone church dedicated in 1755 that has never fallen into ruin, its convento ceilings still painted, and the ground where the Texas Revolution's fight for San Antonio began.

More markers nearby

• James Charles Wilson — steps away
• The Flores de Abrego Family and Floresville — steps away
• Captain Will Wright — steps away
• Texas Ranger and Sheriff Capt. Will L. Wright — 0.9 mi