Notable Confederate Veterans from the Area

Jabez L Brittain (1833-1902)

Jabez Brittain was born on November 29, 1833, in Putnam County Indiana. He and his family moved to North Texas in 1845 and then on to Georgetown in 1852.  He became a clerk at a local mercantile and was elected as Sheriff of Williamson County sometime before the beginning of the war.  Like many in the County, he was an anti-secessionist, but when the State seceded, he remained loyal to the State.  He was appointed to the Adjutant position in W. C. Dalrymple’s Mounted Ranger company in May 1861.  When the unit was dissolved in 1862, Brittain enlisted as a private in Company A (commanded by Edward Vontress), Morgan’s Texas Cavalry.

At the end of the war, Brittain returned to Georgetown and engaged in the mercantile business and ranching until, in 1891, he opened a marble business with O. L. Spencer.  Jabez Brittain is buried in the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Georgetown.

William Cornelius Dalrymple (1814-1898)

W. C Dalrymple was born on August 3, 1814, in Moore County, North Carolina where he lived until he was twenty-one years old.  In 1835, he moved to Texas and served as a ranger until 1842 when he fought in the Mexican War under Edward Burleson.  In 1848, when Williamson County was created, Dalrymple served as one of the Commissioners that located the new county seat in Georgetown and was elected its first Assessor and Collector.  In 1855, he was elected to represent Williamson and Burnet counties in the Texas Legislature.  On Dec 30, 1859, Governor Sam Houston authorized Dalrymple to recruit a Ranger company for frontier defense.  In 1860, he was appointed the Commander in Chief of the Texas Militia with the rank of colonel and ordered to take command of all frontier forces.  He remained in the frontier until June 1862.  Along with Jabez Brittain, W. C. Dalrymple joined Company A of Morgan’s Texas Cavalry as a private and served in Arkansas.

At the close of the war, Dalrymple returned to Georgetown where he worked as a surveyor and attorney.  He represented Williamson and Travis counties in the Constitutional Convention of 1866.  William Cornelius Dalrymple is buried in the Presbyterian Cemetery in Georgetown.

Thomas Proctor Hughes (1826-1899) 

Thomas Proctor Hughes was born in 1826 in Kentucky.  He graduated from Center College in 1848 and practiced law until he moved to Georgetown in 1851.  He continued his law practice in Georgetown until forming a partnership with J. J. Dimmitt in 1860.  Hughes was elected to represent the County at the Secession Convention called by Governor Sam Houston and on February 1, 1861, was one of only 8 of 177 delegates to vote to remain in the Union.  On March 7, 1862, Hughes enlisted as a Private in Company A, Morgan’s Texas Cavalry and served until he was discharged on July 5, 1862. 

In 1866, Hughes was elected District Judge, but was removed from office during the reconstruction period.  He subsequently as elected District Attorney in 1872 and held that position until 1875.  Thomas Proctor Hughes is buried in the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Georgetown, TX. 

William Knight Makemson (1836-1919)

William K. Makemson was one of the earliest pioneers in Williamson County.  He was born in Illinois in 1836 and moved, with his family to Brushy Creek in what would become Williamson County in 1847.  Makemson’s received his early education from George Laymon, who had built the first schoolhouse in the county.  Like many in the county, he was opposed to secession prior to the war, but when Texas seceded, he volunteered as a private with Company A, Morgan’s Texas Cavalry.  In 1864, Makemson was elected Sheriff of Williamson County.  He left Confederate service to take up his new position.  In 1865, Makemson was appointed by Governor Hamilton as District Attorney serving until his resignation in 1870 whereupon he became a criminal defense attorney in Georgetown.  He was an author and publisher of the Georgetown Watchman newspaper in the 1860’s and 1870’s.  Makemson was a founder of the Williamson County Old Settlers Association and served as its president.  He died in 1919 and is buried in the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Georgetown.

Emzy Taylor (1841-1895)

Emzy Taylor, one of Georgetown’s most prosperous citizens was born in 1841 in Arkansas and moved to Georgetown along with his family in 1849.  He was educated in Georgetown and worked in his father’s mercantile until the beginning of the Civil War.  Taylor volunteered for Confederate service first as a Private in the 28th Brigade of the Texas State Troops and later on July 13, 1861, as a Private in Company E of the 4th Texas Infantry under General John Bell Hood.  In December 1861, he was discharged from service from what the doctors called consumption and returned home after a hospital stay.  He later rejoined the Confederacy in May 1862, in the Sixteenth Texas Volunteers (Flournoy’s Regiment) and was elected 2nd Lieutenant and later promoted to Captain after the death of Captain Chalmers at Mansfield, Louisiana during the Red River Campaign.  After the war he returned to Georgetown, inherited his father’s mercantile and continued in the business until 1882 when he founded the First National Bank of Georgetown and became President.  Taylor was also instrumental in the founding of Southwestern University and the railroad company that ran tracks between Georgetown and Round Rock.  A similar effort to build a railroad between Georgetown and Granger failed due to lack of financing.  In 1895, Emzy Taylor took his own life, some think because of the railroad failure and others from a case of post-traumatic stress from the war.  Emzy Taylor is buried in the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Georgetown.