Shackelford County, Texas
Albany is home to 38 official Texas Historical Commission markers — each one telling a piece of the city’s story. Browse the markers below, then find them on the map and discover more nearby with RoadHistorical.
Formed from Bosque County; created February 1, 1858; organized September 12, 1874. Named in honor of Dr. Jack Shackelford 1790-1857; captain of the "Red Rovers," a company from Alabama which became a unit of Fannin's…
View on map ↗William Henry Ledbetter (1833-84), a native of Georgia, came to Texas in 1858, and established a salt works on Hubbard Creek (8 miles southwest) in 1862. Ledbetter withstood fierce Indians attacks before moving near…
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View on map ↗Built 1883-84 from plans by J. E. Flanders of Dallas, architect for several other 1880s Texas courthouses. Edgar Rye of Albany was construction superintendent. Kilted Scottish Masons erected the walls of stone quarried…
View on map ↗Erected 1877-78 by architects and builders Thomas & Woerner of Fort Worth. Gerard B. Allen of St. Louis furnished ironwork. Initials on many of the native limestone blocks show masons' claims to payment for work. An…
View on map ↗The oldest church building in Albany. Methodists, who organized their church in 1873, built this sanctuary on Schoolhouse Hill in 1889, moved it to Main Street in 1909. Trinity Episcopal Mission, founded 1910, bought…
View on map ↗Few in numbers and with little protection from the military but refusing to abandon their country, certain families of courageous and determined people on the Texas frontier during the Civil War gathered together in…
View on map ↗Located 8 miles southwest on Salt Prong, Hubbard Creek. Discovered 1861 by trail drives. W. H. Ledbetter began extensive development of deposits in 1862 with increased Civil War demand for salt. A large furnace was…
View on map ↗In Memory of TEXAS CATTLE TRAIL - To Dodge City, Kansas and other northern points 1875 - 1890. (1964)
View on map ↗Oldest congregation in Northwest Texas Conference of Methodist Church. First church of any denomination founded in Shackelford County. Organized in 1873 at ranch home (8 miles East) of J. C. Lynch (1828-1912), a later…
View on map ↗This structure was the jail used in the town of Fort Griffin located 15 miles north of here, near the United States Army Post of Fort Griffin which defended the frontier from 1867 to 1881. During this period lawlessness…
View on map ↗First permanent home in Albany. Built 1875 of stone from nearby deposits by Henry Carter Jacobs (1842-94), an organizer and the first sheriff of Shackelford County. A Kentuckian, Civil War veteran, and surveyor, Jacobs…
View on map ↗Founded on counsel of the Reverend French McAfee; named in honor of a pioneer rancher, Barber Watkins Reynolds (d. 1882), the Reynolds Presbyterian Academy opened in 1898, with classes meeting in a vacant storehouse. A…
View on map ↗Chosen county seat of Shackelford in 1874, Albany had a 43-acre townsite donated by Sheriff Henry C. Jacobs. County clerk W. R. Cruger named city for his old home, Albany, Ga. A wooden picket courthouse was erected. The…
View on map ↗Webb Park -112 Main Street, Albany
View on map ↗This was Albany's first stone mercantile store. It was erected in stages, combining Greek revival and Victorian Italianate designs. In 1878, W. H. Miller built one-story east unit, and permitted Albany Masonic Lodge to…
View on map ↗First inhabited by nomadic Indian tribes, Shackelford County was created in 1858 and named for Dr. John Shackelford (1790-1857). The first permanent Anglo-American settlers in this area included, J. C. Lynch…
View on map ↗From 1858 until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, a station of the Butterfield Overland Mail Route was located here. Despite a brief existence, it was an important stop of the early stage line that reached from…
View on map ↗T. E. Jackson, a prominent businessman from Fort Griffin (15 miles north) built this structure in the late 1870s as a warehouse for a general merchandise store. For more than 100 years, it served the town of Albany as…
View on map ↗In 1900 the Texas Central Railway extended a line northwest from Albany across this portion of Rose Ella (Matthews) Conrad's cattle ranch. Ella and her brother John A. "Bud" Matthews, for whom this site is named,…
View on map ↗Built in 1874, and used as an office building, this structure was moved here in 1879 from Fort Griffin. Owner Edgar Rye was a newspaper publisher, cartoonist, and held numerous elective offices. Rye sold the building in…
View on map ↗(Blach Building) The land on this site, Lot 9, Block 3 of the original town plat of Albany, was purchased in 1882 by noted local restauranteur Charles Hartfield. He planned to build a restaurant next door, and the…
View on map ↗Charles A. Hartfield purchased the lot on this site in 1881. A noted area cook, he quickly established "Charley's Restaurant," which included a bakery and boardinghouse. Hartfield was so successful that he planned an…
View on map ↗In the 19th century, the U.S. government established forts along Texas' frontier to protect pioneers. By the early 1850s, Col. Jesse Stem farmed along the Clear Fork of the Brazos River, and Thomas Lambshead established…
View on map ↗(Aug. 9, 1916 - Dec. 22, 1943) A graduate of Albany High School, William Edwin Dyess was an aviation and infantry commander in the Phillipines during World War II. Captured at the fall of Bataan in 1942, he survived the…
View on map ↗(August 9, 1916 – December 22, 1943) A native of Albany, and a graduate of Albany High School and John Tarleton Agricultural College, William Edwin Dyess was the son of Judge Richard T. and Hallie Graham Dyess. Trained…
View on map ↗Cattle have been important to Texas' economy since early Spanish mission days. Before and after the Civil War, routes developed for driving herds through Texas to sell in Missouri and Kansas. The best known was the…
View on map ↗Scottish immigrant John Brown (1842-1903) moved west following his theological studies in New York. He married Mary Jane Matthews Larn near Fort Griffin and in 1884 became minister of Albany Presbyterian Church, just as…
View on map ↗FORT GRIFFIN FANDANGLE IN JULY 1938, AREA RESIDENTS GATHERED HERE TO PARTICIPATE IN THE FIRST SHOWING OF THE FORT GRIFFIN FANDANGLE. EARLIER THAT YEAR, ALBANY HIGH SCHOOL DRAMA TEACHER ROBERT NAIL, JR. WROTE AND…
View on map ↗Physician and military commander, Jack Shackelford, was born in Richmond, Virginia. He earned an M.D. degree and in 1811, moved to Winnsboro, South Carolina, where he opened his first practice and met Maria Youngue,…
View on map ↗THE CIVILIAN CONSERVATION CORPS (CCC) OPERATED NATIONWIDE BETWEEN 1933 AND 1942 TO CONSERVE NATURAL RESOURCES AND TO PROVIDE WORK FOR YOUNG MEN DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION. THE FEDERAL PROGRAM PROVIDED EMPLOYMENT FOR…
View on map ↗IN 1866, A UNION ARMY REGULAR, HARRY HALL (H.H.) McCONNELL (1837-1895), LEFT PENNSYLVANIA AND TRAVELED TO FORT BELKNAP NEAR JACKSBORO. A NATURAL JOURNALIST, HE WAS A TALENTED WRITER WITH AN INQUISITIVE MIND AND SENSE OF…
View on map ↗This pioneer burial ground contains more than a dozen graves of African Americans. The land was part of the Veals addition to the town of Fort Griffin. Milton Sutton bought the property at public auction in April 1882.…
View on map ↗In December 1886, evangelist J. P. Pinkerton led 26 people from 19 families to found this church. Members met in the Shackelford County Courthouse. Miss Betty Parker then gave $50 to buy land for a one-room frame…
View on map ↗Oil drilling in the 1920s transformed this area from cattle ranches to a boomtown. In 1919, the Ibex Oil Co. drilled a successful well into the Caddo Lime formation. Soon other drilling companies came and wooden…
View on map ↗Robert (Bobby) Nail graduated from Albany High School in 1926. In New Jersey, at Lawrenceville Prep. School and Princeton U., his literary activities were highly acclaimed. Nail directed theater groups in Fort Worth,…
View on map ↗Shackelford County was an unorganized and largely unsettled county of 914 square miles when Oliver Loving (1812-1867) and Charles Goodnight (1836-1929) engaged in cattle drives through the region between 1866 and 1867…
View on map ↗William Ivy Cook (1857-1923) and his wife Matilda moved to this county in 1985. With a brother-in-law, J. H. Nail, Cook purchased a 27.75-section ranch. The Cooks bought out Nail in 1898, and have owned the ranch ever…
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