county names – Page 8 – Texas History Notebook

Irion County, Texas

Irion County is situated west of San Angelo (Tom Green County) in West Texas. Its county seat is Mertzon. It is sparsely populated but the origin of its name extends back to the early days of the Republic of Texas. It was founded in 1889 and was named for Robert Anderson Irion, a medical doctor. Dr. Irion was a friend and personal physician of Sam Houston.

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Sherman, Texas

The town of Sherman is located in Grayson County. It was named for General Sidney Sherman (1805-1873) who during the battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836 is the person credited for shouting the battle cry “Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!” In 1846, the Texas legislature had created Grayson County out of Fannin County and designated Sherman as the new county seat. Sherman gained its first post office in 1847. It was fairly well established by 1850 and later became a stop on the Butterfield Overland Mail route.

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Hardeman County, Texas

Hardeman County, Texas is located on the Oklahoma border west of Wilbarger County and east of Childress and Cottle counties and bordered on the south by Foard County. Its county seat is Quanah, named for the famous Comanche Chief Quanah Parker., the last Chief of the Comanche Nation.

Ben Milam

Benjamin Rush Milam was born in Frankfort, Kentucky in 1788 to Moses and Elizabeth Boyd Milam. He was named for Dr. Benjamin Rush, who had served soldiers including Moses Milam in the American Revolution at Valley Forge. Ben enlisted in the Kentucky Militia as a private and eventually rose to the rank of Lieutenant during the War of 1812. He remained in the army until his enlistment was concluded in 1815.

Lorenzo de Zavala

Manuel Lorenzo Justiniano de Zavala y Sáenz was the first vice president of the Republic of Texas, serving under interim President David G. Burnet. He was born October 3, 1788 in the Yucatán area of Mexico and died November 15, 1836 at the age of 48 in Channelview, Texas. His family heritage was Spanish and he was in the third generation of his family to be born on the American continent.