Cameron, TX (DeWitt County)

Cameron was accepted by the DeWitt County Commissioners Court on June 23, 1846, as the first county seat of DeWitt County. It was to be established 3½ miles above Chisholm Ferry (see CLINTON, TEXAS) on land east of the Guadalupe River that Joseph Tumlinson had donated. The settlement was named for Ewen Cameron, a Mier expedition prisoner executed by order of Antonio López de Santa Anna in 1843. By November 1846, James Norman Smith had surveyed and platted the new townsite, and though many lots were sold, no houses were ever built. The sole buildings were Smith's county clerk's office and the commissioners' court, both rude log structures. On November 21, 1848, court sessions were moved to nearby Clinton, which claimed to have won the county seat election, but the Texas Supreme Court decided in favor of Cameron. The county government was moved at least four times back and forth across the river from Cameron to Clinton until the latter won the designation of county seat in 1850. The last court session in Cameron was held on August 3, 1850.