Ellis County

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it: and friend, this one's worth your time. Now, if you're rollin' through Ellis County and you find yourself wonderin' just how a patch of North Texas prairie got its name, the marker standing out here has the answer, and the man behind it lived a life that'd fill three counties, not just one. The county itself was created on December 20, 1849; carved right out of Navarro County.

They got it organized by August 5, 1850, which if you're countin', is less than eight months from creation to a functioning county government. Texas was movin' fast in those days. But the name: the name belongs to Richard Ellis.

Born in 1781, a Virginian by birth and by education. He came up through the Old Dominion, got his footing as a jurist and a statesman, and made his mark in Alabama from 1813 to 1825. That's twelve years of law and governance before he ever set boot on Texas soil.

Then in 1825, he moved to Texas. And whatever he left behind in Alabama, he was about to step into something considerably larger. March of 1836.

You know what was happening in Texas that March. The whole Republic was balancing on the edge of a knife. And it was Richard Ellis who sat as President of the Constitutional Convention; the gathering of men who put words to what Texas was and what Texas intended to be.

Think about the weight of that chair. The marker doesn't overdress it, and neither will I. He presided.

He held the room. After that, he served as a Member of the Congress of the Republic of Texas. The man wasn't done contributing just because the convention adjourned.

Richard Ellis died in 1846; three years before the county bearing his name was even drawn on a map. He never knew. But Waxahachie became the county seat, and Ellis County carried his name forward, from that December creation in 1849 right on down to this very road you're traveling.

A Virginian, shaped in Alabama, made his mark in Texas. Some men leave a footprint. Richard Ellis left a county.

What the marker says

Created December 20, 1849 from Navarro County Organized August 5, 1850 Named in honor of Richard Ellis, 1781-1846 a Virginian by birth and education Jurist and statesman of Alabama 1813-1825 Moved to Texas in 1825 President of the Constitutional Convention, March, 1836 Member, Congress of the Republic of Texas Waxahachie the county seat