Belmont, Texas
Unincorporated community in Gonzales County · Not an incorporated municipality
About Belmont
Belmont, officially known as the "Belmont Site," is an unincorporated area of approximately 40 square miles in extreme western Gonzales County, Texas, United States, adjacent to Greater Austin, north of the "Belmont intersection" at the "Leesville Quad" water-testing site (FM 466), electorally known as local Precinct 5. The population of Belmont-proper has been rated at 36 employees, with the greater area rated at 1,169 residents. The area is defined by the limits of the northern and western county line, bordered by the significant 1800s land grants of Eliza Dewitt, Ira Nash, Samuel Robbins and Thomas Decrew. It is served by the Belmont Volunteer Fire Department.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
How Belmont is governed
Belmont appears to be an unincorporated community or a census-designated place, so it may have no city government of its own — services usually come from Gonzales County and its elected officials. The chart below is a generic template; readers can correct it if Belmont does have local officials.
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0 of 14 positions listed. Gray dashed boxes are placeholders waiting for a name.
Residents of Belmont
Registered voters elect the officials below.
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Mayor
Executive
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The city's chief elected official. Presides over the executive branch, proposes the budget and represents the city.
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City Manager / Administrator
Executive
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The professional administrator who runs day-to-day operations (in some cities appointed by the council instead of the mayor).
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Police Chief
Administration & departments
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Leads the police department.
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Fire Chief
Administration & departments
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Leads the fire and emergency services department.
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Public Works Director
Administration & departments
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Streets, water, sewer, and city buildings.
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Finance Director
Administration & departments
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The budget, taxes, and city accounts.
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Planning & Zoning Director
Administration & departments
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Land use, zoning, building permits.
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Parks & Recreation Director
Administration & departments
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Parks, programs, and public facilities.
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City Council
Legislative
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The elected body that passes ordinances, sets the tax rate and approves the budget.
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City Clerk
Administration & departments
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Keeps the official records, runs meeting agendas and, often, local elections.
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City Attorney
Administration & departments
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The city's lawyer; advises officials and prosecutes ordinance violations.
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Boards & Commissions
Legislative
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Citizen advisory bodies, such as planning, zoning appeals and library boards.
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Municipal Court
Judicial
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Hears traffic, ordinance and other minor cases.
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Municipal Judge
Judicial
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Presides over the municipal court.
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History
Initial public record of 1893 shows Belmont's place in Gonzales County as an area of households significantly supported by African-American labor, and gun fighting within classical family feuds. The river south of it was used as a household laundry. Further, Belmont shares a part of the history of the Old West as it's featured in The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez, and in the realities of the manhunt of Gregorio Cortez in the historical Battle of Belmont. The general area has been associated with the industry of horsebreeding.
Name
The original mapped record of its area from 1856 indicates "Belmont" began as a "Beaumont, Gonzales County, Texas" on the San Marcos River, northeast of its present-site on the Guadalupe River, still east of Nash Creek on the Guadalupe County line. This is an apparent collision with the present-day Beaumont, Texas in southeast Texas, with "Beaumont" since replaced or corrupted with "Belmont" on contemporary record.
The Guadalupe River site (U.S. Highway 90A), upon its northern bank, was originally founded as "Centerville, Gonzales County" in the 1840s and eventually came to take on the present Belmont name, in order to receive postal service; like Beaumont, Texas - Centerville, Texas was a colliding, duplicate name as well.
Dubiously and falsely, given the Belmont Stakes began in 1867, far after Belmont's founding, the area is claimed to have been named after horse racing.
DeWitt Colony
The Belmont area was originally settled by Eliza DeWitt after January 1830, when she eventually received a DeWitt Colony land grant in April 1831; she had moved from St. Louis County, Missouri. She was later widowed twice, with one of her husbands killed by Native Americans. Her third marriage was in Houston. Her original DeWitt Colony land grant is the oldest established tract completely within Belmont, preceding the Texan Revolution.
Most of Belmont's urban facilities share the Ira Nash tract, a DeWitt colonial-tract, with rural Kingsbury in the northwest.
Old Billy horsebreeding
Born in Lumpkin County, Georgia, in 1830, William B. Fleming came to Texas before 1850 where he enlisted in Company C of the Texas Rangers Mounted Volunteers and later the Confederate Army during the Civil War. After the war, Fleming moved to Gonzales County. In partnership with Charles Erasmus Littlefield in 1871, Fleming purchased land on the Guadalupe River south bank in Belmont. Fleming erected a dog run-style cabin of black walnut logs where remnants can still be found.
Fleming purchased his first horse known as "Old Billy" and used him to breed a line of quarter horses known as "Billys". Cowboy, rodeo performers and racing enthusiasts coveted Billy horses and Fleming was one of the premier horse breeders of his day.
Belmont—Old Nixon
Notable person
Martin Beaty, United States Representative from Kentucky
Former settlements
Saint James is a former settlement, of frontier railway town legacy, that defines the northeastern boundary of the Belmont area; it is located on Gonzales County Road 260 intersecting with FM 2091. Its southern counterpart Smithville is found at Gonzales County Road 257 and U.S. Route 90 Alternate.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.