Fayette County

Duane's take

The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just the one passing it along. Now, out here in the heart of Texas, the land has memory. And Fayette County is a place with a name that reaches all the way across an ocean.

It was formed from two older counties, Colorado and Bastrop, carved right out of that established territory and set on its own two feet. The Texas Congress created it on December 14, 1837, and by January 1, 1838, it was organized and open for business. A new year and a new county, all at once.

But here is where the story gets interesting. They didn't name it for a local rancher or a nearby river or some surveyor who drew the lines. They reached back across time and across the Atlantic, and they named it in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette.

Born in 1757, died in 1834. A French nobleman who somehow became one of the truest friends this side of the world ever had. The marker calls him, and I think this phrase is worth savoring, a nobleman and republican friend of Washington and of the United States.

Think on that. A man of noble rank who believed in the republic. A Frenchman who stood beside Washington.

That is the kind of person a young Texas county wanted to carry into the future with it. The county seat is La Grange, sitting right there as it has since the beginning. And so every time you roll through Fayette County, you are passing through a place named for a man who crossed an ocean for someone else's freedom.

That name didn't end up on the map by accident.

What the marker says

Formed from Colorado and Bastrop counties. Created December 14, 1837. Organized January 1, 1838. Named in honor of Marquis de LaFayette. 1757-1834. Nobleman and republican friend of Washington and of the United States. County Seat, La Grange.