Founding of Georgetown Historical Marker, Georgetown, Texas

Signed March 13, 1848, the legislative act creating Williamson County included the appointment of John Berry, Sr., William C. Dalrymple, David C. Cowen (Cowan), Washington Anderson, J. M. Harrell, and J.O. Rice as Commissioners to locate a seat of government for the newly formed County. Choosing a central spot, the six men met in May 1848 under the shade of a majestic live oak tree just south of the junction of the two forks of the San Gabriel River. As they sat deliberating over possible locations for a county seat, the men were joined by George Washington Glasscock, Sr., partner (with Thomas B. Huling) in a large land development firm. In his account of the incident, W. L. Mann, great-grandson of Commissioner Anderson, states Glasscock was riding past on a mule when he spotted his cousin, Wash Anderson. [1] Upon learning the purpose of the meeting, Glasscock tendered a proposition. If the Commissioners would locate the town here and name it Georgetown, he would donate a tract of land, the boundaries to be determined by a line from that same oak tree "due north to the South San Gabriel, and another [line] from the same point due west to the river". [2]

Accepting Glasscock's offer, the Commissioners hired surveyors Matthias Wilbarger and D. C. Cowan to mark the 173-acre tract into lots.

As stipulated by the Legislature, a public sale of the lots was held on July 4, 1848, and the proceeds used to erect public buildings. [3] Shortly thereafter the Brushy post office was renamed Georgetown, and Francis M. Nash was appointed postmaster on July 27, 1848. [4]

Until the first log courthouse was completed in late 1848 or early 1849, the stately oak in the southeast corner of the new county seat continued to serve as a popular meeting place, and it was there that the first district court met on October 10, 1848. [4]

In the early days of the Texas Republic, present Williamson County was still a sparsely settled frontier.

Tumlinson Block House, the first fort and trading post, was built near present Leander in 1836. In 1838, Dr. Thomas Kenney built another fort near Round Rock where he and several other families erected log cabin homes inside a stockade fence. [5] The same year George Washington Glasscock, Sr., made a four-week visit to the area to inspect his large land holdings along the San Gabriel River. [6]

Born April 14, 1810, in Hardin County, Kentucky, Glasscock had engaged in flat-boating on the Sangamon River in partnership with Abraham Lincoln in 1832.

Arriving in Texas in 1834, he fought at the Siege of Bexar. [7] After his marriage to Cynthia C. Knight in Jasper County in 1837, Glasscock moved to Bastrop County. As a surveyor, he traveled extensively through­out central Texas, eventually settling near present Georgetown in 1846. In 1853 Glasscock moved to Travis County and represented Travis and Williamson Counties in the Tenth and Eleventh Legislatures. [8] He died at Austin on February 28, 1879. [7]

Settlement in the area remained slow-paced until the annexation of Texas in 1847 brought a surge of new arrivals to the state.

Soon, a stage line operating from San Antonio to Waco traversed the future county. [9] Newcomers were attracted by the abundant game, timber and limestone, fertile soil, and plentiful springs and streams in this region that was then a part of Milam County. A major frustration, however, was having to travel fifty miles or more by horseback to Nashville-on-the­Brazos to conduct legal transactions. By early 1848, petitions to form a new county were circulated among the settlers, and approval of the Legislature came on March 13, 1848. Rejecting the proposed names of "San Gabriel" and "Clear Water", the Legislature chose instead to honor one of their members, Judge Robert McAlpin Williamson. [10]

Having served as a Major in the Texas Rangers, and later a circuit judge in the Milam District during the Texas Republic, Judge Williamson was widely known and respected in the county named for him, though he was never to reside here. Born in Georgia around 1805, Williamson was admitted to the bar at the age of 19. [10] A disabling childhood illness had left his right knee permanently stiffened, his leg drawn back at the knee. Since he wore a wooden leg from that knee to the ground, he was known as "Three-Legged Willie". Williamson came to Texas in 1826, fought in the Battle of San Jacinto, and served with Sam Houston on the commission to draft the Texas constitution. [11] In a speech before the Texas Senate in 1891, more than thirty years after Williamson's death at Wharton County on December 22, 1859, The Hon. George Clark of Waco eulogized the "judge statesman, soldier, and patriot", attributing him with "a patriotism and an eloquence at least equal to Patrick Henry". [12]

The landmark tree which had played such an important role in the history of Williamson County was felled by a storm on June 15, 1886.

In 1930, desiring to "mark for posterity the spot on which history was made in Central Texas", [13] the Daniel Coleman Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, obtained the permission of property owner John Cluck, and commissioned stonemason N. R. Lewis to erect a 4' x 3' x 19" red granite monument on the spot where the large oak once stood. Mr. Lewis' original bid of $125 for materials and labor was later increased by $5 after Lewis deemed it necessary to remove the tree roots before he could provide his usual guarantee of 35 years. [14]