There are multiple theories as to how the yellow fever made its way into Huntsville during the summer of 1867. One of the town's inhabitants, a man named George Robinson who founded the Huntsville Item, speculated that the fever accompanied a stranger by the name of Mynatt into town. A few days after his arrival in Huntsville, Mynatt was taken down by the disease in a tavern, marking the first yellow fever-related fatality in the town. The prison, Mr. Robinson claimed, did not feel the fever’s effects until later. He did, however, acknowledge that his account was imperfect due to sparse records.

Another theory as to how the fever arrived in Huntsville established the penitentiary as the front line of the viral invasion. This theory claimed that the infected “stranger” had been one of seven prisoners who was transferred to the Huntsville prison from the county jail at Galveston, where yellow fever had already broken out. From the prison, the fever spread into Huntsville, devastating the town.

Whatever the order of events, multiple documents confirm that at least 40 inmates and 2 prison administrators contracted the disease in the penitentiary. In his report on the epidemic, Mr. Robinson contended that a much larger number of prison personnel were infected, including the supervisor, a financial agent, and multiple guards, along with some of the employees’ families. At least two of the prisoners who died of the fever—a thief named William Doss and another inmate (whose crime is unknown) named I. T. Doss—are buried in Oakwood Cemetery. It is possible, however, that other prisoners perished due to the fever as well and were buried in unmarked graves at the prison. As Mr. Robinson mournfully remarked in his account, “no legal record is kept of deaths,” meaning that many of those who died of the fever are lost to history.

Because yellow fever spread so quickly through the penitentiary in 1867, prison employees and government officials became more cautious when transferring convicts to Huntsville in subsequent years. In 1868, a prison administrator named G. C. Bill wrote to Governor Pease requesting that inmates being transferred to Huntsville from infected towns be detained in a remote location until it could be determined that they were healthy:

Huntsville July 13, 1868

Hon. E. M. Pease

Dr Sir,

It is not unlikely that Yellow Fever may prevail in the cities of Galveston and Houston, this summer or fall, and as the criminal court is held in and one the other place every month, it may well be anticipated that convicts will be sent from these cities, whe [sic] if received into the Penitentiary, would endanger the health of the Prison, as well as the citizens of Huntsville and vicinity I respectfully request that in the event convicts shall be sent from any infected district I be authorize to detain them at a suitable distance from town, where they can be guarded and cared for until such time as it will be safe to receive them into the Prison.

Very respectfully,

Your Obt. Servant

G. C. Bill

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“In 1867, Navasota seemed to be in a state of healthy growth and prosperity: trade was quite large and brisk. Numbers of buildings had been erected and many more projected. Our population was pleasing. Early in the summer the physicians encountered many cases of severe fever, some of which proved fatal, showing symptoms of yellow fever. The fatal disease showed itself in some of the northern seacoast towns; it soon reached Galveston and Houston and in August it showed itself here. In the month of August, 1867 there were 15 deaths, all white but two. In September there were 119 deaths, only 14 of whom were colored; the other 105 were whites. Nearly every one of the colored dying were mulattoes; pure blacks seldom died. In October there were 39 deaths, of whom 5 were colored. In November there were only three deaths...."

-Dr. Kilpatrick

Navasota, by 1867 a bustling town which had profited greatly from its proximity to the Houston and Texas Central Railroad, was hit especially hard when the yellow fever scourge swept through Texas in August of that year. Dr. Andrew Robert Kilpatrick, one of the doctors who remained in Navasota to treat the afflicted during the town’s “three months of woe,” and one of the few who survived such heroism, reported that by the end of August more than half of the population of Navasota had vacated the town. A city of 3000 was reduced to 1200 nearly overnight. Many of those who fled died on the road, and of those who remained, Kilpatrick estimates that only a dozen or so escaped the fever altogether. 176 people died of the fever in Navasota, among them several doctors and nurses who gave their lives to fight a disease that they did not understand.

Dr. Kilpatrick wrote in his Brief Sketch of Navasota, “The panic created by the epidemic was equal to any made by an invading army…Navasota was like a city in the state of siege.” The mayor, W.E. Jones, fled the town, and a Confederate veteran named R.H. Geisel took up his duties, governing the town, burying the dead, and ministering to the sick. Nurses were few and far between, and they charged such high prices for their services that few people who remained in Navasota could afford them.

Navasota’s course was forever altered by the epidemic of 1867. A great many people never returned to the city, which Dr. Kilpatrick attributed to “the dread they had of the fever.” The fever, he wrote, “completely revolutionized the City and prostrated it more than the four-year war had done.”

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Millican, a town in southern Brazos County, was decimated by the 1867 epidemic. The fever hit the town later than it did Huntsville, but by September 9th the postmaster sent one last telegraph to Houston to notify them that he was fleeing for fear of the fever. “‘Twill be useless,” he wrote, “to send mail matter to this place from this date, as no one will be here to receive it.” It was later discovered that the postmaster fled into the woods, and the telegraph operator died of the fever. On September 19th the Galveston Daily News reported that chaos ensued when a “stampede” of people evacuated Millican, and by September 23rd a man named Edward Miller wrote, “Millican is a thing that has been, every body that could leave, left, and the rest are dead men…it looks like the village of the dead.” Written on the same day, a letter from Bryan City declared that there had been thirty deaths in Millican over the last ten days: “There are now not enough left to bury the dead.” By the time that the fever had run its course in Millican, the death toll was at a staggering 81 — 61 whites and 20 blacks (important to note, as these numbers show that the Myth of African-American Immunity was exactly that- a myth). A bustling city of 3,000 residents in 1864, Millican became a ghost town while the fever ran its course, and it never quite recovered. The epidemic, along with the extension of the Houston and Texas Central Railway to Bryan and the later bypassing of Millican by Highway 6, caused Millican’s population to decrease rapidly. As of 2014, the town was home to 241 residents.

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From August to November of 1867, the yellow fever epidemic ravaged the little town of La Grange, decreasing the town’s population by nearly a fifth. As the bodies began to pile up, the people of La Grange had to make use of mass graves to stay on top of the carnage—they often buried six to seven fever victims in a single grave. There were multiple speculations as to how the epidemic made its way to the town. One theory was that the yellow fever was brought by a peddler. Another was that germs carrying the epidemic were sent to La Grange from New Orleans in a box of books—a theory which we now know to be incorrect, as the virus is spread by mosquitos, not germs. However the epidemic arrived in La Grange, its appearance was to shake the town’s very foundations. A report in the Brazos Signal (Richmond, Texas) declared on September 28th, “Letters from LaGrange, Texas to be laid before the Howard Association here, state the number of citizens remaining in town is barely five hundred, yet internments reached 24 in two days, average mortality 8, those attacked almost sure to die, disease proving very fatal, nine in ten cases dying.  Every house is filled with sickness and death; whole families are swept away, in some cases no one left to bury the dead, and the disease spreading into the country. No provisions in town. Country people will not venture in with produce, on the ninth not even meal could be had to make gruel for the sick; business ceased entirely, stores closed, newspapers ceased publication, jail emptied of inmates who fled in terror from the scene of desolation.” By the time the fever subsided in LaGrange, a confirmed total of 204 residents had died, though it is thought that many more went unreported. Prisoners being held in LaGrange were either relocated or discharged.

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The yellow fever epidemic of 1867 first made its appearance in the port town of Indianola, Texas in early July. The fever first reached Indianola when the disease traveled from Vera Cruz, Mexico to the port town via boat. Upon arrival, a gentleman and his family notified the officials that the yellow fever was raging in Vera Cruz, and that it might be among them. A drayman named Hunter hauled all the baggage off of the ship and carried it to the Magnolia House. Soon thereafter, he became sick and perished from the yellow fever. Another man who lived opposite of the Magnolia house, who was identified only as Cook, also became sick and died from the fever. A Mexican man who arrived on the ship from Vera Cruz and was staying at Mr. Wagner’s House then became sick and died from the fever, and soon after two others died inside the house as well. Some blankets and luggage of these victims were sold and then distributed among the citizens, causing the fever to be introduced into the general population as a result. This is thought to be the reason that the fever spread and continued to grow. Toward the end of October, a small detachment of the 35th infantry was sent to Indianola. 29 of the soldiers contracted the disease and 14 perished from it. From Indianola, the fever spread directly to other cities along the coast such as Corpus Christi, Goliad, Victoria, and Galveston. The epidemic hit these towns hard—especially Galveston. The fever then followed busy travel routes into the interior of Texas, affecting many cities such as Houston, Millican, LaGrange, and Huntsville. During the time of the epidemic, Indianola had a population of around 6,000, which ranked it as one of the largest Texas port cities, second only to Galveston. Today Indianola is recognized as a ghost town and will forever be remembered by its tragic history of fires, epidemics, and hurricanes. 

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On September 5, 1867, shortly after Huntsville declared the recent string of yellow fever attacks an epidemic, “a general panic ensued.” By the end of the month, families hid in their homes or had fled to the country, schools had dissolved, businesses had closed, plantations had gone under quarantine, churches had fallen silent, and mail had become irregular. Up on the hill at Austin College, young men hid in fear of contagion. Accompanying the panic was a near total collapse of social hierarchy, as the disease wiped away status to reveal character.

When the epidemic struck, a small number of people remained in Huntsville and helped to aid the sick. Martha Ann (Nolley) Otey, who described the scene in a letter likely written from the bedside of an infected friend, her younger sister Eliza Thomas Nolley, who worked for the Andrew Female College, Dr. D. W. Mormond, Dr. Pleasant Williams Kittrell, Sub-Assistant Commissioner for the Freedmen's Bureau James P. Butler, Jean Baptise Coutard, Dr. Charles G. Keenan, Drs. T. W. Markham, H. C. Oliphant, and Josiah Prince all stayed to tend to sick . On the other hand, many notable citizens including Mayor Micajah Clark Rodgers, the Justice of the Peace, and other civil authorities escaped or hid away on their plantations outside of town. One group who had no choice to leave or to stay, were the prisoners. Trapped within the brick walls of the Huntsville Prison Unit, at least forty inmates and two prison officials contracted the yellow fever. After September 5th, everyone left in town was essentially a prisoner as a quarantine went into place. When Margaret Thornton triedto break the barrier, she was forced to stay up until three in the morning after tramping through ankle high mud and water. She eventually arrived into town in mid-September. By then, for those “obliged to go to those who are sick” there was “no business going on of any kind but coffin making and grave digging.”

Deaths occurred quickly and there was not enough aid to care for all those infected. Prior to the epidemic, Huntsville had at least eight local physicians. Having never been hit by a yellow fever outbreak before, the town was considered a center of refuge and it is unlikely that many of the doctors or citizens had encountered its symptoms. Therefore, treatments were often provided by trial-by-error. The only physician who for certain who would have had knowledge of the disease was Dr. Charles Gradison Keenan. Previously infected during the Cincinnati, Texas epidemic of 1853, Keenan had immunity. In a word on his service after the epidemic it is reported that “of Dr. Keenan it would be attempting to add perfume to the rose, to say more than that knew no such word as ‘fail’.”

Other doctors, however, unsure of how contagion was spread, feared assisting patients. At least one doctor reportedly believed that the “only danger of contagion is by sleeping in the same atmosphere with patients.” Others, such as Dr. Joshua A. Thomason, believed it to be caused from ‘miasmas of the night.’ In effort to protect himself, Dr. Thomason remained on his plantation outside of Huntsville continuously burning smudge sticks to keep the sickness away. He even reportedly went as far as to remove all his mail, delivered in a box half a mile from his house, with tongs and an oven glove.

There were four doctors, Drs. Markham, Mormond, Oliphant, and Prince, who while attempting to help also caught the disease, but luckily they recovered and gained immunity. Unfortunately, not all the town’s doctors were so fortunate. “Our citizens are in great distress. Dr. Kittrell is at the point of death. We much need physicians and nurses,” read a telegram received by the Howard Association station in Houston, Texas and published in the Flake’s Daily Galveston Bulletin. The next day Dr. Pleasant William Kittrell, one of the town’s most notable doctors, passed away. Mrs. Otey tried unsuccessfully to nurse him back to health during his final hours. The following day, September 30, another doctor, Dr. Gabriel Moore Baker, originally from Galveston, Texas, too passed away. It is likely that he became infected while saving the life of the Huntsville Item founder. According to Mrs. Otey, Dr. Baker had done a “great good” in Huntsville. He was the last of three Huntsville medical officials to die trying to save the lives of others. The first, Dr. J. A. Moore, died at only 31 years of age on September 10. He lived with his wife, younger brother, and two other relatives. Only his wife and the legacy of his drug store, Messers. J. A. Moore & Bro., survived. While death ravaged, not all of life’s big moments stopped. At least eight marriages occurred during the epidemic and even more rushed to marry after the epidemic ended (there are no birth records to discern an exact count of how many children were born during the panic).

The Howard Association did send aid to Huntsville. Just a few days before the passing of Dr. Kittrell and Dr. Baker, a train arrived in Huntsville with at least five nurses and precious supplies, such medicine and ice. At some point, two doctors, Dr. Hasies and Dr. Williams, also arrived and were “never-tiring soldiers in the fight with death.” Unfortunately, the names of the nurses who helped to serve in Huntsville are lost to history, but they too are “worthy of special mention.” Their assistance brought comfort and joy to those in Huntsville who realized they were not facing the crisis alone.

“It would make the heart sick to read all the distress of [this] place,” wrote Margaret Thornton. Estimates put the total number of deaths at one-hundred and thirty. Evaline Yoakum, wife of Henderson Yoakum, passed away on October 1, 1867 with Mrs. Otey’s sister, Eliza, there to help alleviate Mrs. Yoakum’s distress in the final stage of the disease. The early days of October 1867 claimed the lives of several prominent town members including members of the Gibbs, Smither, and Wynne families. During the early morning hours of October 14, 1867, the epidemic claimed one of its final victims, dedicated Martha Ann Otey. Reverend J. M. Cochran, the pastor of Huntsville’s Presbyterian Church, was by her bedside as she passed away from yellow fever symptoms and wrote the announcement to her parents. The next summer, Reverend Cochran ordained Eliza’s marriage to Captain Thomas Jewett Goree. Thus, the epidemic, while tragic, subsided almost as quickly as it had come around. The quarantine was lifted and slowly the population returned, though now no longer under the illusion that Huntsville was a refuge from yellow fever.

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In August of 1867, the yellow fever blazed into Houston. This was not the first time the gulf city had experienced the fever—every mosquito season was accompanied by the threat of widespread sickness and death—but it was to become the deadliest. A commercial city whose lifeblood was cotton and veins were railroads, Houston was destined to feel the impact of the disease from the moment it broke out in Indianola and Galveston. The disease travelled quickly along the railways from Galveston to Houston, and soon bodies were piling up in the streets. The first case of “vomito negro” cropped up in Houston in the third week of August, having been carried into the town from Galveston the week before. The first case among the troops stationed in Houston—following the Civil War, Houston was for a time the military capitol of Texas—was discovered on September 7th. According to the Surgeon General’s circular on yellow fever in the army, this soldier was “a teamster, who visited the city daily.” Though by September 14th Houston had already suffered 105 deaths due to the fever, the Houston Daily Telegraph optimistically projected on September 15th that the “number of cases will doubtless exceed 700. The mortality when we consider the number of cases, is very light.” Still, on September 17th, the newspaper advised its readers to “Have mustard, castor oil, orange leaves, or some other materials for making a sweating tea, on hand, ready at a moment's call.” By the end of the 1867 fever season, 492 out of approximately 6,000 Houstonians had died of the fever. An additional 200 deaths were suspected but not confirmed. Of the soldiers stationed in Houston, 71 out of a total of 72 men had contracted the disease, 25 of whom had died.

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In Hempstead, the first reported case of the yellow fever occurred when a man named J. L. Vorhees, a traveler from Galveston who arrived sometime in August, died shortly after reaching the town. Hempstead was under quarantine at the time, but Vorhees somehow managed to evade quarantine officials upon arrival. Many of the town’s residents believed that the yellow fever wouldn’t reach Hempstead, so they turned a blind eye to the visitor’s telltale symptoms. Local doctors initially misjudged the cause of Vorhees’ death, claiming that he died from overindulgence in alcohol. It is now thought that he was, in fact, the first to bring the fever into the town, although travelers from multiple coastal cities might have transported the disease—and its winged carriers—into Hempstead as well. After Mr. Vorhees’ death, fever broke out in Hempstead and it proved devastating to the region. People continued to travel to Hempstead and other surrounding towns from Houston and Galveston, carrying the fever with them. Many of the sick who arrived in Hempstead from Galveston died in the city within the first few days. On September 6th, a federal officers who was stationed in Hempstead contracted the fever, and towards the middle of the month several other soldiers came down with the disease as well. In all, 55 cases and 29 deaths were reported out of an estimated strength of 110 soldiers. The fever burned on in Hempstead until early December, when it claimed its last victim and finally abated. 

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On the eve of the great Texas yellow fever epidemic, Galveston was the largest city in Texas with a population of approximately 22,500, and served as a shipping and receiving hub for the rest of the state. The port city’s prosperity was to be threatened in 1867, however, when the fever swept into town, decimating the economy and society of Galveston. Unlike many of the Texas towns which were laid flat by the 1867 epidemic, Galveston had experienced the yellow fever before. At least nine yellow fever epidemics ravaged the city from 1839 to 1867. In 1853, nearly 60 percent of the city’s residents contracted the disease, 523 of whom died. The disease is thought to have originated in the jungles of Africa, having been carried over the seas by ship in the Atlantic slave trade, though it was doubtless transported on ships carrying non-human cargo as well. Having been introduced into such coastal regions as Cuba, New Orleans, and Memphis in this way, it was then repeatedly carried into Galveston Island aboard ships from fever-prone areas. In 1867, the yellow fever hit Galveston with unexpected force. Still recovering from their Civil War losses, the island was unprepared to cope with the viral devastation that was to come. The fever made its appearance in Galveston in late July, and by August the city was experiencing thirty deaths per day, on average. When yellow fever invaded the city, a great number of people fled. As people left, they took the disease with them, spreading it further inland, as far north as Calvert. A Mr. Zeigler, who was stricken with the disease in Galveston but recovered, recollected that “5500 of Galveston’s 22,500 fled to safer ground. About 15 per cent of those remaining died on the island like sheep.” Once prosperous and optimistic, Galveston’s future looked grim as the fever took more and more lives. By the time the scourge burned out in Galveston, it had taken 999 lives on the island. Though the suffering of Galveston was unimaginable, the island’s years of experience with the disease enabled them to provide aid to other afflicted towns. The Galveston Howard Association sent out medical teams to suffering towns across the country, providing “an army of volunteers to nurse the sick and bury the dead.” 

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Bryan, located northwest of Millican, was like many East Texas towns begotten by the Houston and Texas Central Railroad. The construction of the H&TC, which began in the 1850s, led to Bryan’s founding along the railroad’s proposed route. The railroad was to connect Bryan to Houston by passing through Hempstead, Navasota, and Millican, but construction came to a halt in Millican during the Civil War as funds and labor were routed elsewhere. After the war ended, construction was resumed. The railroad reached Bryan in 1867, with the first train from Millican arriving on August 29th. A gala was held to celebrate the train’s arrival, but celebrations soon ceased when a less-than-welcome guest traveled along the railroad from Millican: yellow fever.

Bryan City did not suffer from yellow fever to the degree that Millican suffered, but the disease did leave its mark on the town. There were eight recorded deaths from yellow fever in Bryan in 1867. One of the men who died was a man named Benjamin Hubert. Ben Hubert, a former Indian trader but by 1867 a right-of-way agent for the H&TC, helped his family to escape to a plantation outside of town when the fever hit Bryan. He, however, stayed behind to care for Bryan’s sick and dying. He was not to survive to tell of his heroic deed. He contracted the fever himself while tending to the afflicted, and he died on September 15th. He is buried in the “Bryan Yellow Fever Cemetery,” also known as the Boonville Cemetery, where his gravestone still stands as a testament to the scourge of 1867.

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Anderson, located ten miles northeast of Navasota, is the county seat of Grimes County and was once the fourth most populous town in Texas. Taking advantage of the stage lines which ran through his property, English immigrant Henry Fanthorp ran an 18-room inn with his wife Rachel in what is now Anderson, Texas. The Fanthorps offered room and board to travelers for $1 - $2 per night, a sum which covered lodging and food for one person and boarding for one horse. Notable men such as Sam Houston, Anson Jones, and Henderson Yoakum were guests at Fanthorp Inn, and other figures such as Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and Stonewall Jackson allegedly boarded there as well. In 1846, when Grimes County was organized, Fanthorp offered up land for the county seat. This town was named Anderson, after Kenneth Anderson, the last Vice President of the Republic of Texas, who died at Fanthorp Inn.

Anderson’s population suffered when it was bypassed by the Houston and Texas Central Railroad, which ran through Navasota as it passed between Houston and Bryan. Though the prosperity of Anderson quickly decreased after its residents declined to let the railroad pass through, it seems that the people of Anderson benefited from their distance from the railroad in that they were spared the heavy blow that Navasota was dealt by the yellow fever. They were also able to hold off the fever through the use of a rigid quarantine. Anderson did not escape unscathed, however. Both Henry Fanthorp and his wife Rachel died of the yellow fever in 1867, and the inn was closed as a result.

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Gustavus Adair Wynne and Samuella Gibbs, who became civic and business leaders in Huntsville, married in 1883 and moved into this house, which they first built in the Queen Anne style.

By 1917, they transformed the house into a classical revival structure featuring doric columns and a two-story portico. The additions coincided with Adair's career success; he was vital to organizing Gibbs National Bank, where he served as chairman of the board.

Gibbs Adair, one of the Wynne's sons, later lived here with his wife Lela Mae (Brown). In 1998, family members donated the house for use as a cultural arts facility.

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One of the most important centers at the Houston home was the kitchen. A simple, single, large wooden room with a stone fireplace in the back, the kitchen served as the location for preparing food, washing clothes, soap making, animal butchering, candle making, and storage. It was separated from the house to protect from fire and heat especially in the summer months. During the winter, the large fireplace served to shelter and dry perishable items. Next to the kitchen a small garden provided herbs, spices, and vegetables.

One of the most important figures in the Houston’s kitchen was Eliza Revel, an African-American slave, who traveled to Texas with Margaret after she married Sam Houston. Eliza served as the main cook and directed the daily activities around the kitchen. Margaret was very dependent on Eliza, especially during her numerous pregnancies and health problems. Of course, serving Margaret meant that Eliza was forced to sublimate her own desires and wishes to those of her white owner.

After the Houston’s left Huntsville and Woodland Home was sold, the kitchen was removed from the property. The replica on the museum grounds is erected on the original site in as complete detail as possible. The museum provides demonstrations of hearth cooking and other activities inside the kitchen at various times in the year.

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In 1847, Sam Houston bought a 200-acre property on the outskirts of Huntsville, Texas, to be the site of his family’s home. Houston designed a house that would resemble that of his boyhood in Virginia. While away to serve as one of Texas’s first Senators, Houston kept regular correspondence with his wife concerning his design wishes. The house was finished in February 1848. Houston referred to it as “our dear woodland home” in a letter to his wife. The name stuck, even though he allowed that she could “choose a better name if she saw fit."

The Woodland Home is a standard dog-run log cabin consisting of two separate sections. The first floor has two rooms, a parlor and master bedroom, connected by a breezeway. The second floor, accessible by a single narrow staircase, has two bedrooms, one for the girls and one for the boys, separated by a loft area. There are also two smaller rooms on the back side of the house, extending from the wide rear porch. These are referred to as “stranger’s rooms” and were occupied by Margaret’s mother and used for storage.

Detached from the house was an outdoor kitchen. A large outdoor kitchen was preferred in the South due to the humidity and summer heat. The building design would have been simple, yet functional with an area great enough to accommodate all the necessary kitchen chores as well as stored items. The kitchen that rests on the property today is a latter-day model. Further structures on the property included a hog pen, chicken house, smokehouse, corncrib, carriage house, cotton house, stables, slave quarters, an outhouse, and a law office.

During the family’s time at the Woodland Home, Sam Houston served as the first senator of Texas for the United States and travelled several times away from home, often spending half a year in Washington D.C. While away, his family slave, Joshua, maintained the house and farm. Joshua was held in high regard by the Houston family and the community. The family lived on the property for eight years. It would be the only property Margaret would refer to as her own. The house was unoccupied starting in 1853, on account of Houston’s political career. In 1858 the beloved house was sold for $4,000 to J. Carroll Smith, a local businessman, in order to pay off the debts incurred by Houston’s campaign for governor. For twenty years the house went through various owners. In 1878, it was sold to S. Smedes. In 1899, the home premiered as “Smedes’ Boarding House for Girls,” with additions added to the east, west, and south ends, tripling the size. The law office was moved away from the property. At some point before 1910, the house was sold and experienced further modifications to its appearance.

In 1905, a group of students from Sam Houston Normal Institute, led by the history department’s Bertha Kirkley, formed a group to rescue and restore the old home site. By 1908 the group had raised enough to purchase 2.5 acres of the original property. They continued to acquire more property and with the help of community support eventually purchased the Woodland Home and Law Office, relocating them to their original locations. Before the house could be moved it caught fire, but was saved before it could do extensive damage. In 1925, a fire did further damage. In 1927, another movement was led to restore the house, and it was opened to the public on May 3, 1929.

In 1974, the home was deemed a National Historic Landmark and placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Restoration projects throughout the 20th and 21st centuries have striven to restore the building to its original condition.

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Just a minute’s drive from the 1925 county courthouse in Quitman, Texas, one may find the thoroughly modern, electric blue headquarters of the Wood County Electric Cooperative, Inc. (WCEC). Like many contemporary buildings, the WCEC headquarters was designed to meet the rigorous LEED -- “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design” -- construction standards. While the building may appear an era apart from the organization’s 1938 office on the Quitman square, its focus on energy efficiency places it squarely in the tradition of WCEC’s past. When electricity was first introduced to the region during the Great Depression, farmers had to learn how to use the new resource effectively. In this endeavor, they received the support of the WCEC and the Rural Electrification Administration (REA).

By the 1930s, rural citizens in East Texas had been clamoring for electricity for years. Despite the demand, power companies were reluctant to expand to the countryside, fearing that the lower population density would result in lower usage and lower profits. The companies thought that the farmers would never use much power because they worked outside during the day and went to bed early at night. Adding to this misunderstanding of farmers’ needs, there were significant barriers to the electrification of the countryside. For instance, farmers were unfamiliar with electric appliances and farm equipment. Their farmhouse had no wiring. And, many of them lacked the money to pay for wiring, appliances, or a new electric bill.

When Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration created the REA in 1935, the new agency set out to address some of the problems farmers faced. The REA offered loans for wiring and appliances, for example, and helped to fund the extension of delivery lines beyond the most populated areas of the country. With support from the REA, the WCEC electrified its lines in October 1938 and sought a $5,000 grant to institute a loan program for its members. A WCEC employee remembered wiring his home for $8 in 1939 and paying off the loan in increments of 44 cents per month with his electric bill. In fact, the local newspaper advertised loans for wiring, appliances, and farm equipment with repayment permitted when crops were sold.

Even with the encouragement of loans, WCEC had to overcome the natural frugality of its rural members to allow the widespread adoption of electricity. Some members initially resisted wiring bedrooms because they did not need light when they slept. One member even noted that she would have to sell a number of hens to pay the monthly power bill. Even so, local residents gradually bought into the program. The minimum charge set by WCEC for electricity was $1 per month for 11 kilowatt hours. Members closely watched their meters to make sure they did not go over the minimum.

The REA educated farmers to use electricity on the farm through its Farm Demonstration Tour, sometimes called the REA circus due to its large display tents. WCEC joined with other local cooperatives in January 1940 to participate in a “circus” just outside of Gilmer, Texas. The tour included displays and demonstrations of electric appliances and farm equipment. The climax of the event was a cooking contest between four male farmers using all electric appliances. Presumably, the use of male participants was intended to emphasize the ease of cooking with electricity.

Gradually, farmers learned that electricity often paid for itself as kerosene and ice expenses ceased, waste and spoilage ended, and equipment replaced manpower. Efficient electricity use in rural areas was established through rural electric cooperatives like WCEC.

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Born in 1925, Willie Jerry Jones Sr. owned and managed the Willie Jerry Jones Insurance and Bonding Agency for over four decades. His businesses provided life insurance and bail bonding services to many in the Black Huntsville community. Growing up in Huntsville, TX, he attended the local high school for non-Whites, Sam Houston High School. He participated in many extra-curricular activities, academic and athletic. Then, in 1943, he both married and left for service in the US Navy, serving in Pearl Harbor. After he returned from leave, he owned and operated a barbershop on Avenue M. Next, he worked at the Atlanta Life Insurance Company for 14 years, before opening his own insurance company. [3] [4] [6]

However, his economic achievements pale in comparison to his social/political achievements and endeavors in service of his community. He helped lead the desegregation movement in Walker, and in 1961, became president of the first local chapter of the NAACP in Walker and Trinity Counties. Under his tenure, the Walker County Courthouse facilities, several local businesses, the city hospital, and Sam Houston State Teachers College desegregated. In about four years, almost all of the county removed public segregated spaces. He served as President for over 20 years. For his work and the work of the chapter, he and his wife Mary went to the inauguration of President Lyndon B. Johnson, and Governor John B. Connally. Speaking of politics, Jones was the first black candidate to run for a county office in Huntsville. He won the Democratic primary election for county commissioner in 1964 but lost in the runoff by only 52 votes. The Huntsville City Council, Alpha Phi Alpha, and the St. James United Methodist Church, among others, awarded him bountifully. Jones, with the help and co-partnership with his wife Mary, helped better not only the Black society but the greater local society. [1] [2] [5] [6]

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In June 1927, W.T. Carter, Jr. opened an airfield named after himself through his company, Houston Airport Corporation. Ten years later the City of Houston, using federal Public Works Administration funds, purchased W.T. Carter Field and renamed it Houston Municipal Airport.

After setting a new speed record by flying around the world in 91 hours in July 1938, Howard Hughes visited Houston to celebrate. The city announced the renaming of Houston Municipal Airport to Howard Hughes Municipal Airport. A few months later, city leaders learned the airport no longer qualified for Federal grant money as long as it was named after a living person. The name quickly returned to Houston Municipal Airport.

The 1940 Air Terminal opened in September. The terminal served as the administration building for the airport and supported airlines and traffic control operations. The city added upgrades throughout the airport including paved runways, hangars, and a runway lighting system during World War II. An international wing was added in 1949.

From 1954 to 1957, the City of Houston expanded the existing terminal, added a new modern terminal, and remodeled the existing runway system to accommodate new international destinations with service to Central America and Europe. With these alterations, the airport's name changed to Houston International Airport.

Houston International Airport was renamed in 1967 the William P. Hobby Airport after the 27th Governor of Texas. The name change was meant to correspond with the opening of Houston Intercontinental Airport but was two years early. The two terminals at Hobby accommodated more than 2 million passengers annually during the airport’s boom, but passenger demands soon outgrew the parking and lobby space. To meet the growing demand, the city opened Houston Intercontinental Airport north of the city in 1969. As a result, Hobby downsized its commercial traffic to become a General Aviation Airport serving mainly private and corporate aircraft. Two years later, as the new airport became congested, commercial flights resumed at Hobby.

In September 1978, the last tenants in the 1940 Air Terminal vacated the building. Unable to find new tenants for the 1940 Air Terminal, a debate ensued concerning the building's demolition. However, the building remained standing. Restoration of the terminal took place every ten years until 2004 when the Houston Aeronautical Heritage Society opened the 1940 Air Terminal Museum to the public in the terminal's north wing.

In 2008, the Houston Airport System opened a new Hobby Airport concourse and put into service a massive and modern redesign of the 1954 Houston International Terminal.

In April 2012, Southwest Airlines submitted an official proposal for international service through Hobby Airport to Mayor Annise Parker and the city council that gained acceptance the next month. In addition to the investment in a new international terminal, Southwest Airlines made a long-term commitment to Houston with a 25-year use and lease agreement at Hobby Airport. They broke ground on the international terminal in September 2013.

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Following emancipation, many African Americans sought a place to gather and worship, and they formed churches. The Western Grove Baptist church was founded in 1885 and is the oldest African American church in New Waverly. The church began as Eastern Grove Baptist Church before it moved to the west side of town. Reverend James Alford, Reverend Joe James, Sr., and Deacons Dick Hill, Will Hargrove, Jack Burl and Edd Bailey were instrumental in the church organization. One acre of land was given to the church on the east side of town near the International-Great Northern Railroad.

In 1914, Reverend B.F. Briggs became pastor followed by Reverend Abe Parker and then Reverend Briggs. In 1930, Reverend Loveless Lewis became pastor and he, along with Mrs. Annie Herndon, organized the choir. Tragedy struck in 1936 when the church was blown down by strong winds. The building remained unused for a year and then was moved to the west side of town with the intention of rebuilding it. The church purchased land from Mr. and Mrs. Frank Kmiecik and the name of the church was changed to Western Grove Baptist Church.

The new building was completed in 1937 under the leadership of Reverend J. Jones. In the 1950s and early 1960s, additions were made to the church including the choir stand, pastor's study, choir room and bell tower. The church was moved to its present location in 1958 when interstate 45 was constructed through this area of the county. This historic church congregation continues to be a spiritual beacon for the community.

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The son of Jesse and Fannie Baker, Wendell Harold Baker (1922-2013) played a crucial role in the civil rights movement in Walker County. His parents provided him with a first rate public education, and he graduated with honors from Samuel Walker Houston High School in 1939. Frustrated that he could not attend the local white college in his hometown due to racial segregation, Baker took advantage of a scholarship offer at Austin’s Samuel Huston College, where he pursued a science degree. At the same time, Baker also joined the college orchestra and choir, and traveled around the nation with a sextet that raised money for the college and recruited new students. Due to the draft, however, Baker was forced to delay his schooling in 1945, while he served in the segregated Army Medical Corps in the Pacific Theater of World War II.

Upon returning to the United States, Baker enrolled at Texas State University for Negroes during the fall of 1947. He quickly completed an undergraduate degree in chemistry and returned to Huntsville to teach physical science, biology, and physics at his alma mater, Samuel Walker Houston High School. Baker became famous in local circles for his rigorous teaching style and tireless devotion to his students. Although racial segregation was strictly enforced in Huntsville, Baker often challenged the discriminatory practices and inadequate funding of his school by negotiating with his white peers for science equipment, textbooks, and other supplies. As historian Bernadette Pruitt has shown, “Baker’s determination propelled a number of his students into math and science as career choices.”

In 1962, Mance Park, the former high school football coach turned Superintendent of Huntsville’s schools, fired Baker for building a new brick home on his family’s property, which was located near several white subdivisions. As a result of his dismissal, Baker was forced to find employment outside the local community. He ultimately secured a job at the Goodyear Tire Company in Beaumont, becoming the first African American professional within the company to win promotion to chemical engineer. Baker worked for Goodyear for twenty-two years, and the financial support the job provided enabled him to launch his career of activism back home in Walker County.

Beginning in 1963, Baker played a leading role in the African American campaigns for voting rights, school desegregation, and integration of public accommodations in his local community. He formed the Walker County Voters League and, with his wife Augusta, paid the poll taxes for dozens of African Americans to vote. In fact, the group defeated the racist Walker County Sheriff, Floyd Farris, before demanding additional reforms from the white establishment.

In time, Baker emerged as a key supporter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and its affiliated group Huntsville Action for Youth (HA-YOU), backing their efforts to desegregate the downtown business district in 1965. And, perhaps most importantly, Baker pushed for public school desegregation in both the Huntsville Independent School District and at Sam Houston State Teachers College. Baker’s own daughter, Pam, endured a painful year as she desegregated the 12th grade at Huntsville High School, and Baker personally pushed John Patrick, a young man who graduated with honors at Sam Houston High School, to become the first African American student to attend Sam Houston State Teachers College in 1964. Thus, Baker devoted his life and career to wiping out racial segregation in an effort to secure greater liberty and equality for his community.

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This cemetery is situated on the land originally purchased in 1853 by Mary M. Lewis, James E. Scott, Laura A. Scott, and Milly D. Scott. The first recorded burial was that of John Andrew Jackson (1822-1855), a pioneer settler of Waverly. Three gravestones dated 1852 indicate reinternments rather than earlier burials. Hamlin F. Lewis, John Elliot Scott, and Robert Lindsey Scott left Alabama for Texas but fell victim to cholera in 1852 and were buried along the way. Relatives of the men had their remains placed in this site in 1859.

In 1857, Waverly Institute purchased 200 acres of land which included the burial ground. Through the efforts of Henry M. Elmore (1816-1879), President of Waverly Institute Board of Trustees, twelve acres were officially set aside for cemetery use in 1873.

The town of Waverly was a cultural, educational, and religious center before the Civil War. When New Waverly was founded on the railroad in the 1880s, Waverly declined, but its cemetery remains in use. The burial ground has always been associated with the pioneer settlers of Waverly. In 1965, descendants of the settlers formed a cemetery association to maintain the site.

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With the end of the Civil War on April 9, 1865, millions of enslaved African Americans were now free. However, legal emancipation did not end the deep-seated social, economic, and political problems that African Americans faced throughout Texas. Discrimination continued to affect the social and economic lives of Blacks living in Walker County during Reconstruction. To make matters worse, a yellow fever outbreak swept the South in 1867, killing about 10% of the local population. By 1870, the local black and white population had dropped sharply, and racial tensions had grown. [1]

Huntsville and Walker County, in general, have represented the center of the Texas prison system since the 1840s. The state's first penitentiary was also located there. After the Civil War, southern lawmakers passed "Black Codes" that turned minor offenses, like failing to provide proof of employment or breaking curfew, into crimes, leading to many more arrests, particularly of African American men. In Texas, the Convict Lease System, which became common in Walker County, let private people or businesses rent out prisoners, usually Black men, for exorbitant fees. [2]

At first, prisoners built railroads, such as the Houston & Great Northern Railroad, built by the Phelps Dodge Company, which ran through Walker County. Convict laborers did more than lay track; they also constructed Dodge Station in 1872. The project proved so successful that the leaders of the community that sprang up around the station named their town Dodge, in honor of the corporation that had brought so much business to their area. Although Dodge lacked large prison units, it featured farms operated through convict leasing. Popular throughout the post-Civil War South, convict leasing allowed local governments and even private businesses to use prisoners as laborers. By keeping large segments of Walker County’s African American population behind bars, local officials denied them the freedom promised by the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution. [3]

The Convict Lease System reveals how the change from slavery to freedom in the mid-1800s merely created new ways to exploit and control Black workers by often turning normal behavior into crimes. In 1874, the U.S. Army moved several prisoners from Huntsville to a military prison in Kansas. The inmates reported to federal officials that Texas prison personnel frequently deprived them of proper food and clothing and threatened them with guns, whipping, and torture. In fact, one prisoner had been shot while “trying to escape.” In a subsequent investigation of Huntsville’s prison system, state inspector J.K.P. Campbell noted that the Huntsville Prison’s dispensary lacked any medicine and demanded that prison officials explain how 49 sick prisoners could be treated with no supplies. Campbell’s investigation also revealed outbreaks of scurvy and severe physical abuse of prisoners that had resulted in permanent, untreated injuries. Such findings proved that the convict lease system continued to use slavery-like work practices, which maintained an ongoing system of racial and social inequality. [4]

The number of convicts in Texas rose from 146 to 264 between the end of the Civil War and the fall of 1866. However, in 1876, the Texas legislature passed a law that ended Huntsville Penitentiary's contract with private companies and returned control of convict leasing to the state. In 1879, Governor Richard B. Hubbard established a board of directors, a supervisor, and guards to monitor conditions at the prison. He also contracted with a new firm, Cunningham and Ellis, to make minor improvements to repair penitentiary buildings and remodel the prison hospital. But the company later bribed local officials to cover up the underlying harshness and abusiveness of the convict lease system. As such, the racial exploitation surrounding convict leasing continued to persist not only following Reconstruction but well into the Civil Rights era as well. [5]

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The earliest known inhabitants of this area were the Cenis and Bidai (Bedias) Indians. Spanish explorers began to arrive in 1542, followed by the French in 1687. The area was thinly populated by Spanish and Mexican settlers until the early 1830s when colonists came from the United States. Brothers Pleasant and Ephraim Gray established a trading post near this site about 1835 or 1836, naming it for their home in Huntsville, Alabama. The region was included in neighboring counties until Walker County was created by the First Legislature of the State of Texas in 1846; it was named for U. S. Senator Robert J. Walker, who introduced legislation for Texas' annexation. The state penitentiary was established at Huntsville in 1849.

Agricultural products, primarily cotton, were shipped out by steamboat from the late 1840s. When the Civil War began, R. J. Walker declined to support the Confederacy. The Texas Legislature renamed the county in 1863 for Texas Ranger Samuel H. Walker. Martial law was declared in the county for 60 days in 1871 because of Reconstruction-era racial violence.

With the arrival of the railroads in the 1870s, depot towns flourished. Huntsville narrowly avoided the fate of other towns bypassed by the railroads when residents hurriedly raised funds to build a spur. Cotton never regained its pre-Civil War stature, and lumber and livestock became important businesses in the 20th century.

The heritage of Walker County, from Native Americans to frontier settlers and U. S. Citizens, is one of independent spirit and determination.

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The story of Willette Rutherford Banks, commonly known as W. R. Banks, began in the town of Hartwell, Georgia. W. R. Banks was born into the union of J.M. and Laura Banks on August 8, 1881. Banks received his early education at Colored Zion Elementary, an institution founded by Banks' father. While at Colored Zion Elementary, Banks symbolized "the striving of Negros in the post-Reconstruction South." Banks would go on to Atlanta University and excel in his studies. While at Atlanta University, Banks engaged in activities such as being an editor of the university newspaper, becoming a varsity debater and being a member of the YMCA. However, one of his biggest achievements was his relationships with fundamental civil rights leaders of the era, such as W.E. B. DuBois and Horace Bumstead. DuBois, in particular, had a significant influence on Banks. During these years, Banks met and fell in love with Glovinia Virginia Perry.

Banks went on to graduate from Atlanta University in 1909. At the referral of Atlanta University President E.T. Ware, Banks secured a position at Fort Valley Normal and Industry Institute. While at Fort Valley, he worked in various capacities, such as a teacher, prayer leader, athletic coach, and supervisor over a farm. By 1912 Banks had left Georgia and gained employment at Kowiliga Community School in Elmore County, Alabama, where he served as a principal. During Banks' term as principal, Banks achieved notable success. He expanded his network when he made "contact with northern philanthropic financing.” Also, he helped heal community divisions.

A friend of Banks named Bishop R.A. Carter recommended him for the presidency of Texas College in Tyler, Texas, and by May of 1915, he was elected to the position. Banks remained president until 1926. During his term, he faced many challenges, such as underpaying or unpaid teachers. However, during these years, he learned the art of financing. By the end of his term, Texas College had the second-largest black student enrollment numbers in Texas.

After leaving Texas College, Banks became the principal of Prairie View A&M. The position of principal came with much scrutiny. The position was seen as corruptible and divisive. Prairie View was a part of the larger Texas A&M system. This system was a white ran and dominated land grant system. The system was heavily tied with state politics, and it was well known that if any person holding the principal position at Prairie View went against the political agenda at the time, they would likely be out of a job. With that said, the person taking the position needed to know how to maneuver strategically, which made the job perfect for W. R. Banks.

During the candidacy process, Banks faced fierce competition; however, he used strategy to win the position. The black Texas political stage was changing. Black leaders, especially those who were Methodist, were moving away from traditionalism and following philosophies such as Marcus Garvey's "New Negro" ideals. Banks supported the new liberal ideas; however, he understood that the whites in charge questioned his position on racial issues. Banks’ cunningly downplayed his connections to Dubois and emphasized his connections and beliefs in the values of Booker T. Washington. Additionally, A&M President T. O. Walton believed that the issues at Prairie View were too big for a negro to handle. However, Banks assured Walton that he would try to be the best leader he could be. With the support of President Walton and the A&M board, Banks was elected seventh principal of Prairie View on June 1, 1926.

Banks arrived at Prairie View in November of 1926. Upon arrival, he noted several critical issues, such as staff anarchy, teachers being underpaid, and facilities needing repair. Moreover, when the A&M board and the General board of education issued the school money, Banks built and remodeled a number of things, such as two boy halls, a hospital and nursing quarter, a community center, and furniture for the boys and girls dormitory. Banks also encouraged honor societies, debating, scholarships, and athletics.

Banks continued working for the advancement of the college when he helped establish the National Association of Teachers for colored schools. The association was similar to those that Banks had experienced during his time at Atlanta University. The association hosted annual meetings, collected monthly reports, and analyzed the present state of education for blacks and how it could be improved.

Another advancement was securing accreditation for Prairie View. Initially, when state agents reviewed the conditions of Prairie View, they found that the library was too small, the employee’s credentials were questionable, and the structures were badly planned. Banks decided it was time to take action. However, he needed the support of white men, considered more believable than a black man. Banks enlisted the help of Henry C. Schuhmacher, F. M. Law, and Charles E. Friley. The bank applied to the A&M board for monetary aid but rejected it. But Banks’ appeal to the Southern Association of College was heard, and the association awarded the college with an "A" rating.

Banks came under fire from black leaders and white liberals when he supported creating graduate school at Prairie View. Banks believed in several principles regarding the issue 1. Blacks are too poor to go North and could be trained better to deal with southern conditions. 2. Northern schools are going to block the black tide. 3. “Prairie View should set its schedules to serve as a shock absorber for the state after the Gaines ruling.” Banks decided was backed by the board, and Prairie View became the center for black graduate studies in Texas and the surrounding states.

During the 1940s Banks was heavily influenced by the wartime race riots, the writings of Gunnar Myrdal, and Dubois’s plea to “emancipate Blacks through cooperative research.” Banks ultimately was forced to retire after he went over the heads of the A&M board, which failed to support the legislation and Banks’ decision. In his final years then became the vice chairman of the board of regents of Texas Southern University and served on the boards of Atlanta University, Morehouse College, and Paine College. Banks died on October 16, 1969, and is buried in Prairie View, Texas.

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Electric light came to the farmers of Upshur County, Texas in July 1938. Citizens of the county and surrounding rural areas created the Upshur Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation (URECC) in 1937. They applied for a loan of $140,000 from the Rural Electrification Administration and built 28 miles of line to bring electricity to 139 members in that first illumination. By 1941, URECC served 2,100 rural members in nine counties. It borrowed money from the National Youth Administration (NYA), another New Deal program, and used NYA labor to build a new headquarters. It also made plans to build a new electric generating plant. The success of URECC and other rural electric cooperatives did not come without controversy. Privately-owned utilities did not like the competition from government subsidized cooperatives. URECC was a prominent player in some of the clashes with power company interests.

Power companies opposed cooperatives building their own power generation facilities, wanting to confine their competition to power distribution. In 1941, URECC joined with other cooperatives to form the Farmers Electric Generating Cooperative, Inc., intending to build a $1 million generating plant. The generating cooperative hired contractors to string copper wire transmission lines from Gilmer to the participating cooperatives. By late 1941, the United States was gearing up for a war that was soon to come. Copper was in demand and subject to government restriction. Congressman Thomas Winter of Kansas, accused the REA of allowing the hoarding of copper near Gilmer and several other East Texas communities in violation of law and to the detriment of war defense preparations. He accused the REA of “teeming with Communists.” Congressman Bob Poage of Waco, Texas defended the REA and the cooperatives the next day explaining that the copper had been ordered for use by proposed generating cooperatives before any restrictions existed. He accused Winters of advancing the power companies’ interests. Ultimately, the REA and cooperatives were cleared of any hoarding charge, but the attack was widely seen as an attempt by the power companies to discredit the REA and slow down the cooperative movement.

As towns expanded into rural areas through annexation, the urban electric providers began to encounter rural electric cooperative customers. URECC sought the right to keep its members, who now were within city boundaries, and to offer services to other households within the annexed area. Southwestern Gas and Electric Company, who had the franchise right to provide electricity in the town of Gilmer, sued URECC to enjoin them from offering services in the expanded city limits. The case went to the Supreme Court of Texas which ruled that URECC could keep its existing members who were annexed into the city limits, but could not offer services to any other persons in the city. This ruling had a negative effect on cooperatives and they began to lose customer coverage in areas where municipalities expanded. A change in Texas law and later litigation allowed cooperatives to serve customers in the city. Despite challenges like these, URECC continued to grow. As of 2015, it served over 44,000 members.

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In rural Walker County, Texas, a quiet cemetery rests on a hill ringed by an ornamental fence. It is near the Old Calhoun Ferry Crossing on the Trinity River, North of Lost Indian Camp Road. It is a small family cemetery belonging to the War of 1812 veteran and plantation owner Samuel Calhoun (1788-1871). [1] Generations of Calhoun's descendants were buried here from the 1850s to 1900. Concerning the Calhoun family, their graves have been thoroughly researched and preserved along with their legacy. [2] The question of the unmarked graves of their enslaved companions, however, is another tale altogether.

On March 27, 2024, David R. Hoffpauir and Dr. Zachary Doleshal, in collaboration with his public history class began work on searching for those lost graves. Hoffpauir, a University Program Associate with the Department of Environment and Geosciences and Applied/Geospatial Research Lab, proposed the application of non-invasive ground penetrating radar (GPR) to detect lost graves in the original black section of the Calhoun Cemetery. He had previous experience using GPR at the nearby Oakwood Cemetery in Huntsville, Texas. His findings at that cemetery indicated the presence of significant subsurface anomalies, representing many objects such as graves and headstones long submerged below the ground.

GPR operates by pinging an electromagnetic pulse down into the soil, on average around 10 meters, and records signals that bounce back to the surface. This methodology is usually done over a grid section across the Earth via a mounted instrument on a cart or vehicle. Other methods can include, but are not limited to, using boreholes, drones, and even helicopters. [3] The preliminary findings from the Calhoun cemetery, represented in this article, were discovered via a GPR instrument on a hand-pushed cart.

David Hoffpauir and Dr. Doleshal had long suspected the area beyond the ornamental fence of the Calhoun Cemetery of containing the remains of numerous enslaved individuals and servants of the Calhoun family, notably including a nurse and a maid. Their primary source was Margaret Calhoun's letter to her grandson, Mark Billen Calhoun, regarding their family's property renovations in November of 1971. Margaret's letter suggests two eye-opening details. One, enslaved labor was used to build the Calhoun plantation using brick and timber. Two, Samuel Calhoun's enslaved persons and servants, whom he brought from South Carolina, were segregated from the rest of the family at the grave in their square of land near the plantation home.

The preliminary findings from the two surveys on March 27, 2024, did not definitively show interments. However, subsurface anomalies suggesting the presence of unusual debris were found. The raw data from survey one represented a depth down of about 3'. Survey two in contrast represented 4' to 10'. While some irregular, linear features near the surface seemed to indicate possible tree roots a "blob" found around 1.9' suggested a possible marker near the surface. More promising were signs of linear features that emerged around 5'. The blobs disappear entirely at 10'. Hoffpauir believes it was indeed possible that the grave site may have been clipped in this range but expresses that there is not enough information to make a good call. A formal survey over a larger area is recommended to clarify these findings.

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Most Texas public schools desegregated in the 1960s, but in 1970, racial segregation still hid in plain sight in a number of districts, especially in East Texas. For example, the predominantly white Daingerfield Independent School District routinely accepted transfers of white students from the neighboring, and predominantly black, Cason ISD. The U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) warned Daingerfield against this in 1968, only to watch the district annex a section of Cason ISD that encompassed all of its remaining white students. In its investigation, HEW found other districts had engaged in similar school district gerrymandering to produce racially segregated outcomes.

HEW’s first instinct was to withhold federal aid dollars from these districts, but because some of the offenders did not receive federal funds, the case was referred to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) instead. DOJ investigators found nine instances of small all-black school districts neighboring large predominantly white districts. The investigation also unearthed significant inequalities between these black and white districts in terms of educational facilities and resources. Fifteen years after Brown v. Board of Education (1954), it was clear that segregated schools remained in Texas.

The DOJ reasoned that it would take too long to litigate each instance of discrimination uncovered, therefore a statewide court order would be more effective. It filed suit on March 6, 1970 in the Marshall Division of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Not only were the gerrymandered school districts named as defendants, but the State of Texas and the Texas Education Agency (TEA) were as well. The DOJ specifically chose to file in the Marshall Division where its attorneys anticipated a favorable ruling under Judge William Wayne Justice, who had indicated pro-integration views in a 1969 case involving Tatum ISD. They would not be disappointed.

Though it would have far-reaching ramifications, United States v. Texas (1970) was not recognized as a significant case at the time, and proceedings began with plenty of empty seats in the courtroom. The DOJ presented well-documented violations of both Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Fourteenth Amendment through denial of equal education in the all-black school districts identified. In addition to racially motivated student transfers and adjustments of district boundaries, some school districts were also designing bus routes to perpetuate racial segregation. Since the state and the TEA were responsible for funding and supervising the districts, the DOJ argued that they were complicit in the discrimination taking place. In its defense, the state’s legal team appeared woefully unprepared to make any convincing arguments to the contrary.

With compelling evidence so heavily stacked in the federal government’s favor, Justice considered the case an easy decision. Finding that racial segregation and discrimination were indeed at hand, Justice looked to the precedent in Brown v. Board of Education II (1955), which made federal district courts responsible for supervising school desegregation, as well as Green v. County School Board (1968), which demanded the elimination of racial discrimination through specific criteria. Justice ordered all of the defendant school districts to submit integration plans in collaboration with the U.S. Office of Education and the TEA. Meanwhile, the TEA was ordered to stop approving district boundary changes and inter-district student transfers. No later than January 1, 1971, the TEA was required to submit its own plan to fully desegregate Texas public schools.

Justice issued more detailed instructions through Civil Order 5281 in April of 1971. The remaining all-black school districts were ordered to combine with a neighboring school district to “eliminate by positive means all vestiges of the dual school structure.” As the primary agent of enforcement, the TEA was required to examine all inter-district student transfers through the lens of desegregation and disapprove those which ran counter to this goal. The same held true for all district annexations or consolidations. The TEA would also inspect bus routes, extracurricular activities, and staffing assignments to eliminate all traces of segregation and discrimination. It was required to explain why any small districts which were more than 66% minority or more than 90% white could not be consolidated with a larger neighboring district. Schools with a 66% or higher minority population would be examined annually. Justice ordered the TEA to punish all violations by withholding funds or even denying accreditation.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit denied the state’s appeal in July of 1971, but modified Justice’s order to prevent it from superseding current or future desegregation rulings outside the Eastern District. This effectively removed big districts like Houston, Dallas, and Austin from Justice’s supervision, but the plan still applied to over one thousand school districts, making it the broadest school desegregation order in history.

By Justice’s own estimation, United States v. Texas “helped a great deal in stopping white flight in rural school districts,” however “the ruling was not as effective as it could have been.” One of the order’s main limitations was its slow and lukewarm enforcement by the TEA. Badly understaffed for such a role, the agency’s requests for increased resourcing were denied by the state, which only sought the bare minimum necessary for compliance. Justice had assumed the DOJ would closely monitor enforcement, but the Nixon administration proved increasingly disinterested, and Justice received no support from his fellow federal judges in the state. As Justice put it, “I was just one judge in East Texas, with no one to help in the enforcement of the order.”

A study by the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas noted that from 1970 to 1979 the state's 12% of districts with moderate to heavy segregation were reduced by half. Although the TEA scaled back its enforcement efforts during the 1980s, Texas public schools were clearly less segregated than they would have been without Justice’s order. United States v. Texas proved very successful in eliminating segregated bus routes and the racial gerrymandering of school district boundaries. Justice never retired, and continued to oversee the lawsuit until his death in 2009.

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In 1872, W.L. Holloway donated a tract of land to the Bath community. A small building on the land served as school and sanctuary for area residents, who established Union Hill Crhuch that same year. The congregation's first trustees were Martin Palmer, Jr., Jackson Wells, Jr. and Frank Arnold.

Significant pastors were the Rev. Elisha Day and his son, the Rev. Robert E. Day. During one of Robert Day's sermons, a possum reportedly walked into the sanctuary, giving the community its locally known name of Possum Walk. Pastors from several denominations have served the church, which remains active, and the building, renovated over the years, continues to serve the community as a place for meetings and worship.

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During the Great Depression of the 1930s, President Franklin Roosevelt joined with Congress to create a public relief program called the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Designed to provide jobs and stability for young men across the country, the CCC enrolled single, unemployed men between the ages of 18 and 25 in a variety of construction projects. For their work building roads, trails, dams, and firebreaks, the men received housing, food, and $30 a month ($25 of which had to be sent home to their families).

Between 1933 and 1941, the CCC assisted the Texas State Parks Board with the development of roughly fifty Texas state parks. Dozens of CCC units contributed to this park-building effort, including Company 2888, which began construction on Smith County’s Tyler State Park in 1935. The plan for Tyler State Park, designed by Ben K. Chambers and Joe C. Lair, called for the CCC to build a mess hall, water tower, boathouse, and more. The most daunting task that Company 2888 encountered was the construction of a 90-acre, man-made lake at the heart of the park. In order to build the lake, the workers had to clear substantial brush and debris, and then construct an 850-foot earthen dam. Another challenge facing the CCC was the threat posed by wildfires in the mid-1930s. Therefore, in 1936 and 1937, Company 2888 built fire breaks along the periphery of the park to defend against potential devastation.

In addition to the masonry work, dam construction, and brush clearing that Company 2888 performed, the men of the unit also found time to host dances, attend educational classes, and learn vocational trades. Smith County became a home-away-from-home for the men, and they made acquaintances with local people in the region. It was an enjoyable and rewarding time for everyone involved in the CCC, and many of the men remembered the experience for the rest of their lives.

When Tyler State Park officially opened in 1941, visitors marveled at the recreational opportunities the new site offered. Among the park's features still standing today are its original boat house, combination concession building, and bath house. In the 1970s, a flood destroyed a large portion of the park, but the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department rebuilt and modernized the damaged area. The park was reopened in 1975 and remains well-known for its prairie-style buildings, an architectural style not seen in other parks. With an array of outdoor activities and cabins, park goers today are able to enjoy the natural beauty of Tyler State Park.

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Life at Trinidad

Settlers at Trinidad typically either served as soldiers at the garrison or farmed the Spanish-American frontier. Spanish officials charged the garrison with protecting Texas’s eastern frontier from outside threats. [1] According to contemporary accounts, the settlement went by many names including: Santísima Trinidad de Salcedo, Salcedo, Spanish Bluffs, Trinity, and Trinidad. [2]

The town’s Catholic priest, Father Fransisco Maynes, compiled a census of the area under order of the Spanish government to assess the town’s situation. The priest’s description reveals diverse groups living there. [3] His optimistic view describes the Spanish inhabitants of Trinidad as loyal, devout, Apostolic Roman Catholic subjects, many of whom tended livestock or grew crops. Other inhabitants came from Louisiana Territory, Europe, or the United States. Maynes described those who came from outside of Spanish Texas as more disposed to living in the country and dependent on hunting, preferring a frontier-based existence over a domesticated life. [4] He saw the foreign inhabitants as respectful towards Spanish citizens and the Catholic religion. Father Sosa of Nacogdoches the closest Spanish town to the East, believed Maynes's account as young and naïve, judging Trinidad’s inhabitants for having little sense of order, morality, or Christianity. [5]

The town’s location near the Trinity River provided a chance for inhabitants to make a living on the East Texas frontier. A diverse set of early settlers came from locations as near as Nacogdoches, but also from further away foreign locations like America, Ireland, Italy, and Germany. [6] Between 1807-1809 more individuals came from within Spanish Texas (from Béxar and Refugio), while some from the Mexican interior also arrived. [7] The majority of these later travelers herded for a living and continued their trade in Trinidad by keeping large stocks of cattle. Some occupants lived further away from the town as wanderers and low-end farmers called las rancherias (“the lesser farms”) Indians interacted with Trinidad but had less interest in farming or settling, choosing to move in and out of the area based on when the area flooded. [8] In addition to the farmers and ranchers, town surveys stated that 80% of male inhabitants had a professional background, while women and children provided the labor to grow vegetables including wheat, maize, beans, watermelon, and pumpkins. [9]

Problems at Trinidad

Trinidad faced many problems during its short existence. With the shifting of international borders due to America’s purchase of the Louisiana Territory in 1803, difficulties of frontier life, and the weakening grip of Spanish rule in the area, the settlement would not last a decade.

Sickness

One well-known visitor to the settlement, Zebulon Pike, came to Trinidad in 1807 after being apprehended by the Spanish officials when his second expedition of the Louisiana Purchase accidentally trespassed onto Spanish territory. After interrogations and apologies by Pike, Spanish leadership instructed him and his party to return to the United States by way of Trinidad. Pike’s diary recounts his short stay in the settlement, recounting that one hundred of its inhabitants had fallen sick. Bouts of sickness had first come to the settlement months after its founding in 1806 when flooding of the Trinity increased malaria-carrying mosquitoes in the region, and such outbreaks troubled the town several times during its existence. [10] Pike also recorded in his journal entry on Trinidad the presence of several runaway slaves. [11]

Gulf Coast Economics and Runaway Slaves

As Southern Americans populated the Gulf Coast Region in the early nineteenth century, Spanish Texas felt the consequences of the Southern agricultural slave-based economic system. One significant event in 1807 demonstrates the slave trade’s direct impact on Trinidad. Enslaved individuals previously owned by Louis Derbonne and his Louisiana planter neighbors fled into Spanish Texas by way of Nacogdoches and took refuge in the town.

Indignant with their economic loss, the Louisiana slavers wrote letters to Spanish Governor Salcedo, heralding threats of patrol mobs going into Spanish Texas and capturing their former charges. [12] They claimed the incident showed the Spanish officials too lax in their border security. While Spanish officials feared American incursion into Texas, they balked at the plantation owners’ threats, seeing the freedom seekers’ presence in Trinidad as a hinderance to Louisiana’s plantation labor system. [13]

Shifting Borders and Immigration Issues

International affairs also impacted the settlement. As foreigners moved into Spanish Texas after the Louisiana Purchase, many refugees- including smugglers- came to the region. Spanish officials insisted on enforcing the crown-mandated mercantilist economic policy of banning the sale of non-Spanish manufactured goods. This meant repercussions for any inhabitant caught buying such goods from a foreign trader-despite a severe shortage of domestically produced goods. This decision strained relations between the Spanish and other groups, as Comanches increased their demand for such items through gift exchange, while Louisiana and American merchants sought opportunities to trade with Indians and settlers willing to ignore Spanish law. [14] In 1808, the town’s garrison captured several smugglers who revealed their cooperation with a local commanding officer and several inhabitants of Salcedo to conduct clandestine business. Later, another solider stationed at Trinidad received a court-martial for “illegal trade activities", in 1812, this individual joining the revolutionary Gutierrez-Magee Expedition that forced the Spanish military in Nacogdoches and Trinidad to retreat westward. [15]

Spanish officials disagreed on how to deal with non-Spaniards coming into the region from American-owned Louisiana. Spanish Colonial Commandant, General Nemesio Salcedo, balked at allowing Louisiana refugees to settle Eastern Texas, but other high-ranking officials overruled General Salcedo because of the difficulty encouraging Spanish colonists to settle the frontier. They approved a plan allowing outsiders to stay in Trinidad if they signed a loyalty oath. [16] One day in September 1809, fourteen foreign migrants without passports or documentation showed up in Trinidad, and town leaders permitted the group to settle in Trinidad if they signed the required oath. Among the fourteen undocumented Europeans and American immigrants were men named John Magee, Henry Poston, Petter Patterson, John Lum, William Burgess, Joshua Reese, and Peter Brown. [17]

The Death Knell of Trinidad

After Father Miguel Hidalgo’s Cry of Dolores ignited the Mexican War of Independence, Spanish presence in Texas began to unravel. Activity surrounding the war led to the town’s destruction in 1813. An early American filibuster in Texas known as the Gutierrez-Magee Expedition, led by Bernardo Lara de Guitierrez and American Lt. Augustus Magee, plunged the region into turmoil, and when the expeditionary group temporarily occupied Trinidad, many locals moved away.

In late 1813, a Spanish army led by Colonel Ignacio Elizondo, a Spanish officer bent on counter-revolutionary revenge, fought their way East to Nacogdoches and executed many of the remaining Trinidad settlers and the army’s war prisoners before destroying the settlement. On the march back to San Antonio de Béxar, a soldier in Elizondo’s unit mortally wounded the colonel in anger over the massacre and destruction at Trinidad. [18] The American governor of Louisiana at the time, William Claiborne, estimated that the revolutionary violence uprooted 1,200 refugees. [19] Records of former Trinidad settlers show up later in places like the villages of Adaes near Natchitoches, Louisiana. [20]

After Elizondo laid waste to the town, time removed physical evidence of Trinidad from sight. The current location of the town remains a mystery, though modern readings of nineteenth century accounts believe the town’s archeological remains lie somewhere between the Highway 7 and 21 crossings of the Trinity River in Madison County, Texas. In 1936, the county erected a historical marker commemorating Trinidad near Antioch. The marker’s inscription states:

“Later known as Spanish Bluff • A fort and town as early as 1805 • Captured by the Magee-Gutierrez Expedition in October 1812 • Near here the survivors of the Battle of the Medina were executed in 1813 • Inhabitants of the town were butchered by order of the Spanish commander and the town desolated”

Editors’ Note: Due to the helpful work and publication of Texas Educator Jean L. Epperson, knowledge of the lost site of Trinidad remains available and allows for historians and archeologists to imagine the future discovery of this fascinating piece of Texas history. Her work was invaluable to this project and other works this project drew on to better explain Trinidad de Salcedo.

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Near the banks of Town Creek in present-day Huntsville once stood one of Walker County’s earliest “cotton engines,” more commonly known as “cotton gins.” This small but important building helped shape the region’s agricultural development during the early to mid-1800s. Between 1820 and 1860, cotton became the county’s main crop. Huntsville’s cotton gin thus helped transform a sparsely settled frontier into a thriving agricultural community. [1]

Walker County’s physical landscape significantly influenced its early agricultural development. Located in southeastern Texas, the county has fertile sandy soil, dense piney woods, and abundant water resources, making it ideal for farming. Streams like Town Creek, Harmon Creek, and the San Jacinto River provide a steady water supply for crops. Before the rise of railroads, the nearby Trinity River served as a key transportation route for moving agricultural products to market. Historian John Leffler notes that these features led early settlers to establish cotton plantations across Walker County. By the 1840s, agriculture had become the main economic activity in Walker County. [2]

Early settlement patterns reveal the region’s agricultural potential. Many of the county’s first communities in the 1830s and 1840s formed along creeks, springs, and river bottoms where the soil was most fertile. [3] Many of these original settlers brought enslaved African Americans with them. Together, these groups changed the county’s demographics and agricultural landscape. Between 1850 and 1860, Walker County’s population more than doubled, increasing from 3,964 residents to 8,191. This rapid population growth accompanied a dramatic expansion in agriculture. Improved farmland increased by 213% during this period, while corn production rose by 207%. Most striking was the growth of cotton cultivation; production skyrocketed by 1,272% over a generation. This shift shows how quickly cotton moved from a modest frontier crop to the main agricultural force in Walker County. [4]

By the 1850s, Walker County’s fledgling settlements became key commercial centers. They connected Walker County’s cotton fields to larger trade networks and strengthened the crop’s importance in the local economy. By 1860, represented the driving force behind Walker County’s economic growth. It influenced where people settled, how labor systems worked, and how Huntsville grew as a regional center of trade and commerce. [5]

As cotton production grew in Walker County, the county built the infrastructure needed to support a larger agricultural economy. Cotton gins, such as the early one near Town Creek in Huntsville, spread quickly throughout Texas during the mid-1800s. Such a development allowed planters to process cotton more efficiently and promoted the growth of commercial cotton farming. This technological change helped Walker County farmers raise their output and engage more actively in regional markets. [6]

County officials played a crucial role in supporting agricultural growth. Early leaders such as Milton Estill, Chief Justice of Walker County, County Clerk Isaac McGary, and Sheriff William Reeves collaborated with county commissioners to create budgets, set taxes, and oversee road construction. These improvements proved vital in a region where transportation remained challenging. Many early roads were simply dirt paths carved through forests or across rolling prairies, and heavy rains often made travel difficult. [7]

By 1860, Walker County had developed a complex agricultural system. It featured cotton gins to process the crop, county-maintained roads to support settlements, and river ports to transport cotton to market. These changes turned the county from a frontier settlement into a prosperous agricultural area closely tied to the cotton economy of East Texas. [8]

The spread of gins across Walker County helped local planters process cotton more efficiently and get their products to market more effectively. The existence of a gin along Town Creek highlights this broader move toward commercial agriculture. It shows how improvements in technology have changed everyday life and economic activity in the area. By looking at places like the Town Creek cotton gin, we learn more about the factors that shaped Walker County’s growth and the wider history of East Texas before the Civil War. [9]

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