Lee County, in the Claypan area of southeast Central Texas east of Austin, is bordered by Bastrop, Williamson, Milam, Burleson, Washington, and Fayette counties. Giddings, the largest town and county seat, is sixty miles east of Austin.

The region has been the site of human habitation since at least 4500 B.C. and possibly even earlier than that. The earliest known historical inhabitants of the future county, the Tonkawa Indians. The Tonkawas were generally friendly toward European settlers, but many fell prey to European diseases and to raids by the Comanches and Cherokees.

During the Civil War and Reconstruction the Lee County area was politically divided. When the war broke out the majority of the residents in the region supported the Confederacy, and a number of companies were raised in the area. Company H of the Second Texas Infantry was organized in Burleson County, which included Lexington and the surrounding region. Many other Lee County men served in Company E of the Fifth Texas Infantry, the "Dixie Blues," who were recruited in Washington County.