DUANE
Duane's take
The way the marker in Giddings tells it, here's the story as Duane's passing it along to you. Now, Lee County needed a county seat, and the town that rose up to fill that role carries a name worth knowing — Jabez D. Giddings, born 1814, gone by 1878, a man out of Washington County who was one of four brothers.
Four brothers, all the way from Pennsylvania, and every last one of them made their mark as Texas transportation pioneers and business leaders. That's not a family — that's a force of nature in four parts. When the Houston and Texas Central Railroad came pushing through this part of the state in 1871, it needed a place to stop and load up, a shipping point.
Giddings became that place. And it just so happens that Jabez D. Giddings himself was a stockholder in that very railroad.
The town was established right there at that junction of iron and commerce. But the story didn't stop with one railroad. Not in Giddings.
The San Antonio and Aransas Pass line rolled through in 1889, and then the Hearne and Brazos Valley line followed in 1913 — three railroads connecting this one town to the wider world. That same year, 1913, the city adopted a commission form of government, like it was squarin' its shoulders and saying it was ready for what came next. A diversified economy developed.
Three railroads, a modern government, and four Pennsylvania brothers who helped build Texas from the ground up — county seat of Lee County earned every bit of what it became.
What the marker says
County seat of Lee County. Named for Jabez D. Giddings (1814-78), of Washington County, one of four brothers from Pennsylvania who were Texas transportation pioneers and business leaders. The town was established as a shipping point when Houston & Texas Central Railroad (in which J. D. Giddings was a stockholder) reached here in 1871. A second and third railroad (San Antonio & Aransas Pass, 1889, and Hearne & Brazos Valley, 1913) increased city's prestige. Commission form government was adopted in 1913. A diversified economy developed.