Historical Markers in Milam County
Listed below are all historical markers in Milam County recorded with the Texas Historical Commission. Click the name of the historical marker for the image.
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M |
| N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
Page 1 | Page 2
John Garner
Location: US 79 to FR1786 to Alcoa Plant, check in at Plant Protection Office, grave marker is in wooded area, Rockdale
Erected in: 1962
Marker text: Texas War for Independence veteran. He helped destroy Vince's Bridge, April 21,
1836.
Town of Gause
Location: US 79 in carpool parking lot, Gause
Erected in: 1974
Marker text: William J. Gause (1829-1914), born in Alabama, moved to Texas in 1849, to the
Brazos region in 1856, and to this locality in 1872. Buying lumber in
Montgomery, he gave his friend Dan Fowler half in return for hauling it here.
The two built the first homes in this settlement. In 1873, Gause gave right of
way and 100 acres of land to the International & Great Northern Railroad,
and the town was platted. Gause Post Office opened in 1874, with James S.
Reynolds as postmaster. The I. G. N. freighted out great quantities of cotton,
and the town thrived. Cotton gins, stores, blacksmith shops, a lumber yard, a
bank, hotels, livery stables, a newspaper and other businesses were established.
Besides W. J. Gause, civic leaders included Dr. J. E. Brown, Richard Cox, Dr.
James dollar, Lafayette Ely, Bill Faubian, Dan Fowler, J. C. Lister, C. C.
Moore, Dr. John Porter, Frank Thomas, and T. L. Watts. Churches were organized
and a Masonic Lodge chartered. The county's first independent school was
established in Gause. Good highways, mechanized farming, and decline of
railroading halted commerce in the town of Guase. It survives, however, as a
residential site chosen by descendants of the pioneers and by commuters of
industrial plants and businesses in this vicinity.
Daniel and Precilla Gilleland
Location: 8 mi W of Rockdale on FM 487 from intersection with FM 1600, Rockdale
Erected in: 1988
Marker text: Among the first Anglo American settlers to come to Texas with colonizer Stephen
F. Austin, Daniel (b. 1795) and Precilla Boatwright (b. 1803) Gilleland were
members of Austin's Old Three Hundred colony. The couple and their infant
daughter, along with relatives in the Kuykendall and Boatwright families, left
their homes in Arkansas Territory and arrived in Texas in December 1821. Making
his living as a farmer, Daniel Gilleland received land grants in present
Colorado and Austin counties. During the 1830s and 1840s the family moved
frequently, farming in Wharton, Fayette, Washington, Harrison, and Montgomery
counties. By 1847 they had settled in present Milam County. Daniel Gilleland was
instrumental in the growth of the Methodist Church in Texas, assisting several
congregations. He and Precilla were the parents of thirteen children, three of
whom died in childhood. Six Gilleland sons served in the Confederate army. The
family cemetery (2.8 miles SW) was established in 1848 and serves as the final
resting place of Daniel and Precilla Gilleland, both of whom died in 1873 after
more than 50 years spent as pioneers in Texas.
First Girl's Tomato Club
Location: 201 E. 1st Main St, Jail Museum lawn., Cameron
Erected in: 1983
Marker text: The first Girl's Tomato Clubs in Texas were organized in 1912 in Milam County to
acquaint young women in rural areas with tomato production and canning
techniques. At the request of the United States Department of Agriculture, Mrs.
Edna Westbrook Trigg, a local high school principal, agreed to undertake the
project. She organized eleven clubs throughout the county, with members ranging
in age from ten to eighteen. A similar program for boys, the Corn Clubs, had
been instituted in Jack County four years earlier. Each member of the Girl's
Tomato Clubs was to produce a tomato crop on one-tenth of an acre of land and
then was taught proper canning procedures. The girls exhibited their products at
Milano, Rockdale, the 1913 State Fair in Dallas, and the Waco Cotton Palace. So
successful were these exhibits that several of the girls started college
education funds with the money they raised selling their goods. As the state's
first rural girl's organization of its kind, the Tomato Clubs were forerunners
of later programs, including 4-H, that were initiated under the supervision of
the Texas Agricultural Extension Service. Over time, 4-H has expanded its scope
but has maintained the principle objectives of its predecessors.
George Green
Location: Oak Hill Cemetery, S part of old section, Cameron
Erected in: 1962
Marker text: (Star and Wreath) San Jacinto veteran, Texas War for Independence. Ranger,
surveyor, honored citizen of Milam County. Erected by the State of Texas, 1962.
