Milam

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. The town of Milam, sitting in Sabine County, has been quietly holding onto its history since 1828 — and there is quite a lot of it to hold. It started life under the name Red Mound.

That was 1828. Seven years later, in 1835, it got a new name — Milam — named for Benjamin Rush Milam. Now, whatever Benjamin Rush Milam meant to the people of that place and time, they thought enough of him to rename their whole town in his honor.

That's not nothing. Also in 1835, Milam was named the seat of justice of the Sabine Municipality. Then in 1837, the county lines settled in and Milam became the seat of justice of Sabine County — a title it held all the way through 1858.

On December 29th of that same year, 1837, the town was incorporated. So 1837 was a busy year for Milam. Then comes the Republic of Texas, and Milam is serving as an Internal Revenue post.

Layers upon layers. And then the war. From 1861 to 1865, Milam served as headquarters of the Quartermaster's Department of the C.S.A. for Sabine County.

That's four years of wartime logistics running through what started as a little place called Red Mound. But here's where the story turns personal — because markers like this one are really about people as much as places. John S.

Roberts, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, made Milam his first home in Texas. Let that settle for a moment. A man who put his name on the document that declared Texas free — and the first place he called home on Texas soil was right here.

And then there's John C. Hale. The marker calls him a martyr of San Jacinto.

Not a veteran. Not a soldier. A martyr.

He called Milam home too. This marker was erected by the State of Texas in 1936, and it's safe to say Red Mound — or Milam, as we've been calling it for going on two centuries now — earned every word on it.

What the marker says

Founded in 1828 as Red Mound Named in 1835 for Benjamin Rush Milam. Seat of justice of Sabine Municipality, 1835; of Sabine County, 1837-58. Incorporated December 29, 1837. Internal Revenue post during the Republic Headquarters of the Quartermaster's Department, C. S. A. for Sabine County, 1861-65. First home in Texas of John S. Roberts a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. Home of John C. Hale, martyr of San Jacinto. Erected by the State of Texas 1936