History of Huntsville, Texas
Originally, Huntsville
was an Indian trading post. It was founded in 1835 or 1836 by Pleasant and
Ephraim Gray.In 1830 or 1831 Pleasant Gray camped near a spring. (present
day, just north of the post office) The Bedai Indians inhabited the area,
and were freindly and liked to trade. Since the area reminded him of his
home in Alabama, he decided to settle there. He returned to Alabama for his
family. On July 10, 1835 Plesant Gray was granted 7 square miles of land
from the Mexican govennement. He built his house where the courthouse now
stands, and across the street he built a trading post. His trade with the
Indians was very successful, which attracted more settlers. The Town that
sprang up was named Huntsville, after the Gray's family home in Huntsville,
Alabama. Huntsville was incorporated in January 30, 1835 as part of the Gammel,
Laws of Texas, II. It was reincorpated in January of 1852 as a city.
In 1846 Huntsville became
the county seat for Walker County. The first post office was established
in 1837. In the 1840's sawmill's began to be built. Huntsville was also considered
for the appointment of the State Capitol. However, Austin was chosen in 1850.
In October 1849 a log prison
was built. The Texas State Penitentiary housed only three prisoners during
its first year of operation. The prison soon was replaced by a more permanant
brick structure, and other counties begain sending their prisoners there.
The prisoners produced cotton and wool goods. During the Civil War, the prisoners,
made the uniforms for the Confederate Soldiers
In 1867 yellow fever broke
out in Huntsville. Many families left the area trying to avoid getting sick.
It killed 10% of its residents.
Sam Houston and several
other notables were buried in the Oakwood Cemetery in Huntsville. Sam’s
grave is marked by a gray Texas granite monument erected in April 21, 1911,
the 75th anniversary of the Battle of San Jacinto.
Historical Markers
of Huntsville
Name: |
Forrest
Lodge No. 19, A.F.&A.M. |
Location: |
1030 12th Street |
Text: |
One of 25 lodges started
during the Republic of Texas, Forrest Lodge No. 19, Ancient Free and
Accepted Masons, was chartered on Jan. 11, 1844. It is the eighth oldest
lodge in Texas. Among its early members were Sam Houston and Texas historian
Henderson Yoakum. Another outstanding member, William Martin Taylor (1817-1871),
is known as "The Father of the Texas Work". He published a
handbook called "Taylor's Monitor" which brought uniformity
to Texas Masonic ritual. It was approved by the Grand Lodge at a meeting
held here in 1858. At least 28 local Masons have attained offices in
the Grand Lodge. The upper floor of a store owned by Alexander McDonald,
the first worshipful master, served as an early meeting place. A two-story
lodge hall on the north side of the square, built in 1850, was destroyed
by fire in 1881. It was replaced by a brick building near the corner
of University and 11th Street in 1883. The present property was acquired
in 1896 and the new structure dedicated in 1909. The Masons have shared
their facilities with the Red Cross, the First Baptist Church, and the
public schools. Lodge funds have aided distressed members, widows, and
orphans; bought war bonds; and supplied scholarships. |
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|
Name: |
Andrew
Female College |
Location: |
828 Eighth Street |
Text: |
Site of Andrew Female
College Andrew Female College was founded in 1852 and chartered in early
1853. It was named for Bishop James Osgood Andrew and sponsored by the
Texas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Couth, although its
charter allowed no religious tests for faculty or students. The institution's
first five-month session began in may 1853 in an old Huntsville College
building known as "The Brick Academy." At a time when there
were few educational opportunities for women, enrollment was high and
classes soon outgrew the academy. Citizens of Huntsville supported education
for women by contributing funds for a larger, 2-story building completed
in 1855. Eighty students, primarily from Walker and surrounding counties,
were enrolled in the Andrew Female College in the 1856-1857 school year.
Course work included requirements for a classical education as well as
moral instruction and classes in music, drawing, painting and embroidery.
The college operated without interruption through the Civil War. The
1867 epidemic of yellow fever claimed the lives of the college president,
several members of the faculty and a number of students. The fall term
was delayed until the first frost, which killed the mosquitoes carrying
the disease. Andrew Female College suffered from competition as other
institutions such as the Sam Houston Normal Institute opened their doors
to women. Enrollment declined steadily after 1872; the school was closed
in 1880. The college property was conveyed to the city of Huntsville
and reopened later that year as the community's first public school.
The structure eventually was relocated and became a public school for
African American children. (1999) |
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|
Name: |
Austin
College Building |
Location: |
Near the intersection
of 17th St. and University on the Sam Houston State University campus |
Text: |
The Presbyterian Church
established Austin College in Huntsville in 1849 and erected this structure
in 1851-52. Austin College moved to Sherman in 1876, and in 1879 this
building was deeded to the state for use by the newly-established Sam
Houston Normal Institute (now Sam Houston State University). The Greek
revival-era building features a three-bay front facade, two-story portico,
and Doric columns. A third floor, added in 1882, was removed in 1926-27. |
|
|
Name: |
Ball,
The Rev. Thomas H. |
Location: |
New corner area of
Oakwood Cemetery (corner of 9th St. and Ave. I) |
Text: |
Thomas Henry Ball
was born in Northumberland County, Virginia, in 1819, the son of The
Rev. David Thomas and Hannah Henry (Gaskins) Ball. Following in his father's
footsteps, Ball became a Methodist minister. While serving his first
congregation in Prince Georges County, Maryland, he married Susan Rebecca
Perrie. She died in 1853, shortly after the birth of their fourth child.
In 1854, Dr. A. W. Rawlings, a relative by marriage and a member of the
Board of Directors of Huntsville's Andrew Female College, offered Ball
a place on the school's faculty. He accepted and moved to Texas in 1855
with his mother and his children. He served as a professor of Moral and
Intellectual Philosophy and the Natural Sciences and as president of
the college, which had been established in Huntsville in 1852 by the
Methodist Church. In 1857, Rev. Ball married Mariah Obedience Spivey
Cleveland, who also was a teacher at the college. One of the state's
early Christian educators, Ball served Andrew Female College in the dual
position of professor and president until he died in 1858 from typhoid
fever. |
|
|
Name: |
Besser,
General John Slater |
Location: |
Near Sam Houston grave
memorial in Oakwood Cemetery (corner of 9th Street and Ave. I) |
Text: |
A native of Pennsylvania,
John Slater Besser was a brigadier general, legislator, and judge in
Missouri before moving his family to Texas in 1842. While living in Montgomery
and Walker counties, Besser held a number of public offices before and
after the Civil War. He served as director and financial agent of the
state penitentiary under Governors Bell, Henderson, Pease, Runnels, Houston,
Clark, and Lubbock, and was Walker County Judge from 1878 to 1880. Married
four times, Besser was the father of nine children born to his first
wife, Julia Hampton |
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|
Name: |
Boettcher
House |
Location: |
2020 Ave. N 1/2 |
Text: |
Edward ("Mr.
Ed") Boettcher moved to Huntsville in 1928 to begin new logging
operations in the nearby pine forests. His Boettcher Mill supplied the
lumber for the fine interior woodwork in this house, which was built
in 1933-34 for Boettcher and his family. A notable example of its style,
the Tudor bungalow features classical elements in its palladian entry
and the broken-pedimented gables. The house remained in the family after
Boettcher's death in 1967. |
|
|
Name: |
Anthony
Martin Branch |
Location: |
Near Sam Houston Memorial
grave site in Oakwood Cemetery (corner of 9th St. and Ave. I) |
Text: |
Born in Buckingham
County, Va.; came to Texas, 1847. Settled in Huntsville; entered law
practice with Henderson Yoakum. Married Amanda Smith, 1849. Served in
the 8th State Legislature, 1859-61; the Confederate army, 1862; and the
Congress of Confederacy, 1863-65. U.S. Congress refused to seat him,
1866, because of his Confederate service. A friend of Sam Houston, he
was named as co-executor of Houston's will. Branch died in yellow fever
epidemic of 1867. |
|
|
Name: |
Hillary
Mercer Crabb |
Location: |
From the intersection
of SH 75 and IH 45, take SH 75 NW approx. 2 miles; |
Text: |
Georgia native Hillary
Mercer Crabb, a veteran of the militia in his home state, moved his family
to the Mexican state of Texas in 1830. While awaiting a land grant they
settled in the Sabine District. From there Crabb joined the Texas militia
and served in such action as the 1832 Battle of Nacogdoches. In 1835
he was granted property at this site. The rural community that developed
around his homesite (400 yds. W) became known as Crabb's Prairie. Crabb
was instrumental in the early development of Huntsville and Walker County.
A leader in civic and social activities, he became the first probate
judge when the county was created in 1846. He also served as a justice
of the peace and chief justice (county judge). In 1852 he was elected
to serve the unexpired term of State Representative F. L. Hatch. Among
Crabb's accomplishments as a legislator was the introduction of a bill
to create Madison County. Opposed to secession, Crabb moved to Lavaca
County at the outbreak of the Civil War. He later moved to Madison County,
where he served as sheriff. His influence as a prominent landowner, church
leader, Mason and public servant had a dramatic impact on the early growth
of this area. |
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|
Name: |
Site
of Cumberland Presbyterian Church |
Location: |
1006 11th St. |
Text: |
Site of Cumberland
Presbyterian Church On this site once stood the first church building
erected In Huntsville. In 1849, Cumberland Presbyterian Church trustees
A. C. King and T. J. Caldwell purchased this land on behalf of the congregation,
and the building was constructed soon thereafter. The sanctuary also
served as a house of worship for other denominations in town when it
was not in use by the Cumberland Presbyterians. Symbolic of the Cumberland
Presbyterian movement in Texas, the Huntsville Church was founded on
the pioneering efforts of itinerant preachers in Texas such as Sumner
Bacon and Andrew Jackson McGown. McGown published the denomination's
newspaper, the Texas Presbyterian, in Huntsville from 1849 until it ceased
publication in 1856. Church members first met in homes, in the courthouse
or in other public buildings, with the Rev. Weyman Adair and the Rev.
Milton Estill providing early leadership to the congregation. The Cumberland
Presbyterian Church in Huntsville succumbed to the ravages of the Civil
War and the 1867 yellow fever epidemic and eventually disbanded. The
First Christian Church acquired the property in 1871 and moved the building
across the street about 1901, after which time it fell into disrepair
and eventually collapsed. Although no longer extant, the Cumberland Presbyterian
Church remains a significant part of the early religious and cultural
history of Huntsville. (2001) |
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|
Name: |
Eastham-Thomason
House |
Location: |
906 Ave. M |
Text: |
Constructed between
1859 and 1862 by James H. Thomason, this is one of the oldest homes in
Walker County. Byrd Eastham acquired the house in 1869, and his descendants,
one of whom married into the Thomason Family, have retained ownership.
The Georgian plan home exhibits simple classical revival features in
its balustrade, porte cochere, and central hall entrance with sidelights.
The triple two-story columns were added in 1912. |
|
|
Name: |
Emancipation
Park |
Location: |
302 Ave. F (Martin
Luther King Drive) |
Text: |
Celebrations of "Juneteenth"--the
anniversary of the June 19, 1865 emancipation of Texas slaves--were first
held in homes and churches. Later, festivities took place outdoors. By
1915, Huntsville blacks, led by former slave Jane Ward (d. 1933), had
moved the annual observance to this site, known as Emancipation Park.
Dave Williams, another former slave, organized the Band and Park Association
to raise the down payment on the property. In 1933, R. A. Josey, a white
businessman, completed purchase of the land for use by the black community.
The 9.04 acre site became a city park in 1963. |
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|
Name: |
First
Baptist Church of Huntsville |
Location: |
1229 Avenue J |
Text: |
One of the earliest
Baptist congregations in Texas, this church was organized in 1844 by
The Rev. Z. N. Morrell, who served as first pastor. The Rev. J. W. D.
Creath, a missionary from Virginia, was the second, and The Rev. G. W.
Baines, known now as an ancestor of U.S. President Lyndon Baines Johnson,
was the third. General Sam Houston, ex-president of the Republic of Texas,
was a member. The congregation dedicated its first church building in
1851; it was on this site. A bell added in the 1850s became a pride of
the city. This church hosted the Baptist State Convention five times
in the 1850s and 60s. One of the first regular Sunday schools in Texas
functioned here by 1864. Blacks in the membership requested and received
letters of dismission in 1868, to organize a church of their own. After
Sam Houston Normal Institute (now Sam Houston State University) was established
in 1879, many of its people came to augment the leadership in this church.
The congregation has erected houses of worship in 1891, 1924, and 1954.
Throughout its history, it has promoted and financed mission work, and
has helped to organize and encourage other congregations. |
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|
Name: |
First
Christian Church of Huntsville |
Location: |
Corner of 19th Street
and Avenue R |
Text: |
Joseph Addison Clark,
who with his brother, Randolph Clark, later founded Texas Christian University,
started this congregation in January 1854. The church originally had
a dozen members who met in private homes. For a time, worship services
were held in the Walker County Courthouse. First resident pastor was
The Rev. Benton Sweeney, who began his ministry here on January 1, 1863.
The congregation moved into an existing church structure in 1871 at the
corner of 11th Street and Avenue J. In 1901 it was replaced by a new
structure at the site. A red brick church was dedicated in 1931 and served
until the congregation moved to 19th Street and Avenue R in 1963. The
longest pastorate in the church's history was held by The Rev. Edwin
Curtis Boynton, who served here on three different occasions, beginning
in 1899 and ending in 1949. Membership of First Christian Church has
included a number of prominent lay leaders, such as Dr. Joseph Baldwin,
who became president in 1881 of what was then Sam Houston Normal Institute.
The congregation continues to provide significant service and leadership
to the community. |
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|
Name: |
First Presbyterian
Church of Huntsville |
Location: |
1801 19th Street |
Text: |
Organized by the Presbytery
of the Brazos in June 1848, the First Presbyterian Church of Huntsville
began with one elder and ten members. Early worship services were held
in the county courthouse, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and the
chapel of Austin College. Property at the corner of Thirteenth Street
and Avenue K was purchased in 1855, and the congregation's first sanctuary
was erected that year under the leadership of The Rev. Daniel Baker.
It continued to serve the congregation until a larger structure was built
in 1898-1899. The growth of this church has paralleled the growth and
development of Huntsville. Many of the city's civic leaders have been
active in the congregation, which has also ministered to area college
students through the years. Land at this site was purchased in 1955,
and a sanctuary was completed the following year. An educational wing
was soon added to fill the needs of the growing Sunday School, and a
new sanctuary was built in 1974-75. Throughout its history, the First
Presbyterian Church of Huntsville has maintained an active outreach program
to its community. |
|
|
Name: |
First United
Methodist Church of Huntsville |
Location: |
1016 Sam Houston Avenue |
Text: |
Before 1842 Methodists
in Huntsville were probably served by itinerant preachers on the Montgomery
County circuit. The Texas Methodist Conference appointed The Rev. Henderson
B. Palmer as first pastor of the Huntsville church in that year. Records
from 1854 indicate 120 members on the roll, but no permanent church was
constructed until 1857. The church purchased the land at this site in
1854, with the deed made out to trustees of the church D. J. Ransom,
Thomas Gibbs, Robert Wynne, Williamson Wynne, Thomas Bowdre, and their
successors. The first sanctuary was erected under the pastorate of The
Rev. A. Davis. By 1888 a new building was needed, so the original was
torn down and replaced with a larger one. A wooden structure was later
added to the rear to provide room for Sunday School classes. In 1910
fire destroyed the church. Under the leadership of The Rev. E. W. Solomon
a new building was begun, and was completed in 1913 during the pastorate
of The Rev. R. W. Adams. Fire again damaged the church in 1918, and it
was rebuilt the following year. Throughout its history, the First Methodist
Church of Huntsville has provided significant service and leadership
to the community. |
|
|
Name: |
Old Gibbs
Store |
Location: |
1116 Cedar Street |
Text: |
Old Gibbs Store, oldest
business in Texas under original ownership and on first site. Established
1841 in Republic of Texas by Thomas Gibbs. Building erected in 1847 after
Sandford Saint John Gibbs joined firm. General Sam Houston was steady
customer of the partners, who became bankers after lending use of their
safe to neighbors. Gibbs National Bank, established 1890, was forerunner
of First National Bank, established 1922. |
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|
Name: |
Gibbs-Powell
House |
Location: |
1228 11th Street |
Text: |
Built in 1862, this
Greek revival house was originally the home of the Thomas Gibbs Family.
Used briefly as a rent house and for student housing in the 1880s and
1890s, it was purchased by Judge Ben Powell, II, in 1897. Although altered
over the years, the house retains its original character and exhibits
stylistic features such as square porch columns and a central entry with
transom and sidelights. It became a local history museum in 1984. |
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|
Name: |
Henry Opera
House |
Location: |
SE corner of 12th
Street and University Ave. (courthouse square area); Huntsville |
Text: |
Built in 1880 as lodge
hall. First floor soon became a dry goods and grocery store, and second
was made into a fine theater by owner, John Henry (1828-97). Here traveling
troupes played Shakespeare and dramas of the times. Famous magician Hermann
the Great made Texas debut here; and Blind Tom, self-taught Negro piano
virtuoso, once performed on this stage. After period as skating rink,
opera house showed first motion picture in the city, about 1909. But
with building of new theater, it closed and came again to be used for
offices and stores. |
|
|
Name: |
Founding of
Huntsville and of Historic Indian Post |
Location: |
North side of Walker
County Courthouse Square. |
Text: |
Located here about
1830, this Indian post was established by Pleasant Gray, adventurer and
pioneer from Alabama. Friendly Indians of East Texas had long used the
nearby springs and they came to exchange agricultural products and pottery
for hides, ponies, and cured meat brought by the western Indians. Soon
settlers began to move into the region and by 1836, during the Republic
of Texas, the future town of Huntsville had started to spring up here.
Gray sold his post in 1846, as he could no longer tend it. He died in
1848. He had one son. |
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|
Name: |
Joshua Houston |
Location: |
in Oakwood Cemetery,
Ave. I and 9th streets, Huntsville |
Text: |
(c. 1822-January 8,
1902) Born a slave and reared on the Alabama plantation of the Lea family,
Joshua Houston was brought to Texas in 1840 by Margaret Lea and Sam Houston.
During the years after the Civil War, he became a prominent businessman
and respected community leader. He served as a Huntsville city alderman,
Walker County commissioner and delegate to the Republican National Convention.
Houston was a devoted supporter of education for African Americans. Married
three times, he was the father of eight children. At his death he was
interred near General Sam Houston. RECORDED-2000 |
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|
Name: |
Sam Houston |
Location: |
At Ave. I entrance
to Oakwood Cemetery (corner of 9th Street and Avenue I) |
Text: |
Born March 2, 1793,
in Rockbridge County, Va.; son of Samuel and Elizabeth Houston. Moved
to Tennessee in 1807 with widowed mother and her family. In 1813 joined
U.S. Army under Gen. Andrew Jackson, with whom he formed lifetime friendship
and political ties. In Tennessee, taught school, kept a store, served
in U.S. Congress, was state governor. In 1829, after his young bride
left him, resigned as governor and went westward. Settling in 1833 in
Nacogdoches, became a leader in cause of Texas independence from Mexico.
Elected March 4, 1836, to command the Army of the Republic, engineered
retrograde movement that led to victory of San Jacinto, which won Texas
independence. President of the Republic, 1836-1838 and 1841-1844, he
was senator after annexation. In 1859 he was elected governor, and served
until secession. In 1861 he declined to take oath of office in Confederacy,
retiring instead after a quarter-century of service to his state. However,
he did not oppose Confederate army enlistment of his young son, Sam Houston,
Jr. While the Civil War continued, he died on July 26, 1863, at his home, "Steamboat
House," Huntsville. With him was his family, to hear his last words
to his wife: "Texas--, Margaret, Texas--". |
|
|
Name: |
Woodland,
Home of Sam Houston |
Location: |
On the Sam Houston
Memorial Museum and Education Center grounds (in front of Sam Houston
home) |
Text: |
General of the army
which won the war for Texas Independence, 1836, and first President of
the Republic, 1836-1838, Sam Houston was one of the most controversial
and colorful figures in Texas history. In his eventful career, Houston
had resided in Nacogdoches, Liberty, Houston, and Austin. He and his
wife Margaret (Lea) built this house, "Woodland", in 1847 to
provide themselves with a town place. With enthusiasm, he wrote to a
friend that the new home was a "bang up place!" and that the
climate was "said to be healthy". Houston and his wife lived
at Woodland while he was a U.S. Senator, 1846-1859, perhaps the happiest
and most prosperous years of his life. Four of their eight children were
born here. The house was built in a style common to the South at the
time: squared logs covered with hand-hewn, whitewashed boards. The detached
kitchen and law office were built of unfinished, squared logs. In 1859
Houston was elected governor but, although opposed to secession, he could
not keep Texas from joining the Confederacy in 1861. Deposed from office,
he returned to his second Huntsville home, called the "Steamboat
House", where he died in 1863. |
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|
Name: |
Huntsville
Item |
Location: |
1409 10th St. |
Text: |
English native George
Robinson (1820-1888), formerly of the Galveston News, moved to Huntsville
by 1846 and began printing the Huntsville Item on August 20, 1850. He
was able to employ an apprentice printer that year. In 1859 Robinson
and Dr. H. Morton, a dentist, built a two-story building. Dr. Morton's
office was on the first floor, and the second floor housed the Item's
printing operation and office. By 1860, Robinson employed a Canadian
printer named R. H. Griffin. George Robinson served six months in the
Texas state troops during the Civil War and then returned to Huntsville
to continue publishing the Item. His work with the paper was again interrupted
during an epidemic of yellow fever and the economic conditions of Reconstruction
from 1867 to 1869. The newspaper office burned in 1878 and again in 1884.
That year, George's youngest son, Fred Robinson, took over publication
of the paper. He moved operations into a building on the town square
and into another structure in 1885; that building burned in 1892. After
another fire in 1902, Fred Robinson sold the paper to J. A. Palmer, who
merged it with another Huntsville newspaper and renamed it the Huntsville
Post-Item. The names, publishers and owners changed several times in
the following years, but by 1914 it was the Item again, operated by Ross
Woodall. His family continued to operate the paper after his death in
1943. In 1967 the Woodall family sold the paper to Harte-Hanks Communications,
Inc., which owned the Item until 1986. Later owned by several other companies,
the Huntsville Item is one of the oldest newspapers in Texas. (2000) |
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|
Name: |
Huntsville
Springs |
Location: |
In Founders Park near
the intersection of 10th Street and University Ave |
Text: |
Kentucky native Pleasant
Gray and his wife Hannah (Holshouser) left Tennessee with their two children
in 1834 and in 1835 settled here on land granted to them as part of Mexico's
colonization effort. At that time natural springs located nearby served
as a campsite for the area's native Bedias Indians and for immigrants
passing through the region. After establishing a trading post near the
springs with his brother Ephraim, Pleasant Gray subdivided his land into
home and business lots and advertised the property in Alabama, Tennessee,
New Orleans, and various steamboat offices. Settlers soon arrived and
a town developed which Gray named after Huntsville, Alabama, a former
family home. The area's bountiful springs were observed in the Texas
chronicles written by British scientist/adventurer William Bollaert in
1843-44. Huntsville was incorporated in 1845. For many years townspeople
were accustomed to using spring water captured in a trough near the springs.
In 1893-1894 the city dug an artesian well within a few feet of the springs
to provide water for municipal distribution and an ice factory. Shortly
thereafter the watering trough at the spring fell into disuse, and the
spring itself was boarded over. |
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|
Name: |
Huntsville "Walls" Unit |
Location: |
Avenue I and 12th
St., Huntsville |
Text: |
(Texas State Penitentiary
at Huntsville) The Republic of Texas Congress passed a law to establish
a prison system in 1842, but it wasn't until 1848, after a new law passed
the state legislature, that steps were taken to achieve the goal. Huntsville
was selected as the site for the state prison facility, and Governor
George Tyler Wood appointed master builder Abner H. Cook as first superintendent
and construction supervisor for the prison. The first three inmates --
a cattle thief, a murderer and a horse thief -- arrived to a partially
completed facility in 1849. Throughout its history, the Walls Unit has
cycled through periods of negligence and reform, with a variety of administrative
boards governing its operations. In the 1850s, the prison operated a
cotton and woolen mill with inmate labor to help generate its own revenue.
In 1866, the state legislature enabled the superintendent to lease the
prisoners for work in the private sector. This convict lease system lasted
until the reform movement in the early 20th century accomplished its
abolition in 1910. Additional reforms and a need created during the Great
Depression to operate the facility more efficiently led to the establishment
of canning operations, a license plate manufacturing plant, and the inauguration
of the Texas Prison Rodeo. This penitentiary has held Kiowa chiefs Satanta
and Big Tree, infamous gunslinger John Wesley Hardin, and Federal prisoners
of war during the Civil War. As headquarters of the Texas prison system
until 1989, the Walls Unit is the facility from which capital punishment
was carried out from 1924 until 1964, and then again after 1982. (2001) |
|
|
Name: |
Pleasant Williams
Kittrell |
Location: |
Oakwood Cemetery,
9th and Ave. I |
Text: |
(April 13, 1805 -
September 29, 1867) Doctor Pleasant Williams Kittrell, a statesman in
North Carolina and Alabama, moved with his family to Texas in 1850. While
serving two terms in the Texas Legislature, the doctor authored the bill
to establish the University of Texas. Though the bill was signed in 1858,
the university's opening was delayed until 1883. At home in Huntsville,
Kittrell managed his extensive land holdings and practiced medicine.
He treated area victims of the 1867 yellow fever epidemic until he himself
succumbed to the disease. Kittrell is buried near his good friends Sam
Houston (in whose former home Kittrell died) and historian Henderson
Yoakum. (1998) |
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|
Name: |
Oakwood Cemetery |
Location: |
Ave. I entrance to
Oakwood Cemetery (near the corner of 9th Street and Avenue I) |
Text: |
This cemetery existed
as early as 1846. For three graves were placed here that year. Pleasant
Gray, Huntsville's founder, deeded in 1847 a 1,600-square foot plot at
this site. The original tract has been greatly enlarged by other donations
from local citizens. Numerous graves bear the death date 1867, when a
yellow-fever epidemic swept the county. Among the many famous persons
buried here are General Sam Houston; Henderson King Yoakum, author of
the first comprehensive history of Texas; state congressmen; and pioneer
families. |
|
|
Name: |
Jesse Parker |
Location: |
Near Ave. F and 9th
Street entrance to Oakwood Cemetery (in cemetery). |
Text: |
In 1822 Jesse Parker
moved to the Mexican state of Texas. A veteran of the War of 1812, he
represented the Sabine District at the Convention of 1832 in San Felipe
de Austin. Three years later he received a land grant in the Washington
municipality, now Walker County. A farmer, Parker also served as the
Deputy Land Commissioner for Montgomery County. He died in 1849 and was
buried on his land. In 1979 he was reinterred here. |
|
|
Name: |
Pritchett
House |
Location: |
1322 Avenue O |
Text: |
Missouri native Joseph
Lucien Pritchett (1858-1936) and his wife, Lenora Melissa (Evans), moved
to Huntsville in 1888, when he was appointed to the faculty of Sam Houston
Normal Institute as a professor of mathematics. After acquiring some
property in the area, they built this house in 1892 and named it "Oak
Grove." Folk Victorian in form, the house features Queen Anne spindlework
in the porch brackets and along the eaves of the front gable dormer.
The Pritchetts expanded the house as their family grew, ultimately to
include six children. "Oak Grove" remained in the Pritchett
family until 1945. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2001 |
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|
Name: |
Sam Houston
State University -- Main Building |
Location: |
Near corner of 17th
Street and University Ave. on the Sam Houston State University campus |
Text: |
First permanent structure
built by state of Texas for teacher training--when Joseph Baldwin was
president of Sam Houston Normal Institute, L. S. Ross was governor, and
A. T. McKinney was chairman of the S.H.N.I. local board. Cornerstone
was laid Sept. 23, 1889, with main address by The Hon. O. M. Roberts,
Governor when S.H.N.I. was chartered in 1879. Also present was state
school superintendent Oscar H. Cooper, a member of the first faculty.
Completed in 1891, Main gave institute its first library, 8 large classrooms,
a distinctive chapel. Architect: Alfred Mueller. |
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|
Name: |
Sam Houston
State University -- Peabody Library Building |
Location: |
Near the corner of
12th and Avenue J, on the Sam Houston State University campus |
Text: |
The first campus structure
to be used exclusively for library purposes, this building was erected
in 1902. Built with assistance from the Peabody Education Fund (a philanthropic
program created by northern banker George Peabody soon after the Civil
War), the library exhibits classical revival and Romanesque revival style
influences. Designed by J. L. O'Connor, it served as a library until
1929 and has had other academic uses since that time. |
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|
Name: |
St. James
United Methodist Church of Huntsville |
Location: |
Corner of 14th Street
and Avenue M |
Text: |
This congregation
was organized shortly after the Civil War to serve the newly freed slaves
of the Huntsville area. The earliest worship services were conducted
in 1868 in the Union Church building at this site. The sanctuary, located
on land donatd by local French merchant John Courtade, was shared with
a Baptist fellowship. Straughter Hume, Joshua Houston, William Baines,
W. Fayle, and William Sinclair, the first trustees of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, purchased the Union Church building in the 1870s. Also known
as the Freedmen's Church, the original membership included Solomon Jones,
Jeff Lockhart, John Clark, Mary Baines, Sarah Smithers, Harriet Hendricks,
Eliza Jones, Kizziah Lacy, and others. For many years the structure also
served as a schoolhouse. Some of the teachers were Lizzie Stone, Texana
Snow, Jacob Cozier, O. A. Todd, and Mollie Flood. A new wooden sanctuary
with a belfry was constructed at this site in 1894. Under the leadership
of The Rev. Lee of Navasota, the first black presiding elder, the church
experienced a period of considerable growth. Since 1868 St. James United
Methodist Church has played a significant role in the development of
Huntsville. |
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|
Name: |
State Penitentiary
C.S.A. and Texas Civil War Manufacturing |
Location: |
On 12th Street between
Avenue I and Avenue G in front of the Dept. of Criminal Justice Building
Annex |
Text: |
Inmates, slaves, free
men worked in the penitentiary textile factory, main source of cloth
goods for Confederate Southwest. Here "king cotton" and wool
became millions of yards of cloth and yarn, osnaburgs, uniforms for state
troops, Confederate army, needy families of soldiers, cloth sales supported
300 inmates and Union prisoners of war briefly kept there. As Union blockade
tightened, army requests flooded in and family cloth distribution rationed.
Later financial difficulties and worn machinery caused production lag.
A memorial to the Texans who served the Confederacy; erected by the State
of Texas 1963 (back side.) TEXAS CIVIL WAR MANUFACTURING, 1861-65 Heavy
military demands-90,000 Texas troops, a 2000 mile coastline-frontier
to guard-plus reduced imports, caused a fast expansion of Texas industry.
Arms and munitions plants were built, and land grants were used to encourage
production. Private industry met the need and produced vital supplies
for military and civilians. The Confederate quartermaster formed depots
and shops for military goods. Production of salt and "king cotton" was
hiked to trade for scarce items. Ladies and societies spun and sewed
to outfit soldiers. |
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Name: |
Original Site
of The Steamboat House |
Location: |
Near corner of Ave.
F and Ninth St. |
Text: |
Dr. Rufus W. Bailey,
a teacher, minister and attorney educated in New England, came to Huntsville
as a language professor at Austin College in 1855. He acquired an eight-acre
tract on this site and erected a house which he named "Buena Vista," but
which became known as "The Steamboat House" because its unusual
design evoked the image of a double-decker steamboat. According to local
tradition Bailey gave the house to his son, but the younger Bailey and
his wife did not care for the architecture and none of the family ever
lived in the house. Dr. Rufus Bailey served as both minister of the Huntsville
Presbyterian Church and president of Austin College from 1858 to 1862.
In 1862 Bailey rented the house to General Sam Houston, who had been
living at his farm in Chambers County since being removed from the Office
of Governor of Texas for refusing to take an oath of allegiance to the
Confederacy. Dr. Bailey died early in 1863, and his son, F. B. Bailey,
inherited the house. General Houston died of pneumonia at the Steamboat
House on July 26, 1863, and his funeral was held there the following
day. Dr. Pleasant W. Kittrell, friend and physician to General Houston,
bought the property in 1866. He died of yellow fever in the 1867 epidemic.
In 1873 his widow, Mary Frances Goree Kittrell, traded the house to her
brother, Major Thomas J. Goree, a local attorney and Confederate veteran,
who made extensive renovations to give the house a Victorian appearance.
The house was moved one-half mile from this site in 1927; it fell into
disrepair. In 1936 it was moved to the Sam Houston Memorial Museum grounds
and was presented to the state on March 2, Texas Independence Day. (2000) |
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|
Name: |
Walker County |
Location: |
N side of Walker County
courthouse square |
Text: |
Created, 1846, from
Montgomery County. First named for Robert J. Walker, U.S. Senator; in
Civil War, Samuel H. Walker, Texas Ranger and Mexican War hero, was made
honoree. Huntsville, county seat, was once an Indian trading post. First
courthouse was built, 1848. A second one burned, January, 1888, and the
present one was built in August, 1888. Walker County today contains much
of Sam Houston National Forest. Headquarters for Texas Department of
Corrections and Sam Houston State College, the oldest state-supported
college in Texas, are in Huntsville. |
|
|
Name: |
Walker County |
Location: |
1000 University Ave. |
Text: |
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. (1999) |
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|
Name: |
The Five Courthouses
of Walker County |
Location: |
1100 University Avenue |
Text: |
The first Walker County
Courthouse was available for county commissioners court meetings in July
1848; the building was finally completed in the center of the Huntsville
public square in 1850. Because of a defective foundation, a second courthouse
had replaced it by 1853. Repairs made in 1856 did not hold long. The
design for the third county courthouse featured a grand jury house in
the southwest corner of the grounds rather than inside the courthouse
itself. Dubbed "The Little Courthouse," the grand jury house
was completed and in use by 1861. Construction on the main courthouse
was interrupted by the Civil War; it was finished in 1869 but major repairs
were necessary within a couple of years. On the first day of 1888 the
grand jury house was again called into service after the main courthouse
burned. The commissioners court selected Eugene T. Heiner of Houston
to design a new building. The construction contract was awarded to .
N. Darling of Palestine. Darling set to work in late spring and erected
Heiner's vision, replete with Victorian Gothic, Renaissance revival and
Italianate details. That structure, the fourth Walker County Courthouse,
gradually welcomed back the social and religious groups of the county.
Other uses included the Walker County Fair of 1912 and a lecture series
sponsored by Texas A & M University in 1914. The interior of the
building burned in 1968. At that time, it was one of the 25 oldest courthouses
in the state of Texas. The fifth Walker County Courthouse, a modern brick
and steel structure, was completed in 1970. It remained in service at
the dawn of the 21st century. (2000) |
|
|
Name: |
Henderson
Yoakum |
Location: |
Near the corner of
9th Street and Avenue I and the Sam Houston Memorial gravesite in Oakwood
Cemetery |
Text: |
A graduate of the
United States Military Academy (1832), Henderson Yoakum saw duty on
frontiers and in the Mexican War. He practiced law and served in the
Senate in his native Tennessee, moving to Texas in 1845. In Huntsville
he became a civic leader and friend of Sam Houston. Joining fellow
citizens in establishing Austin College, he became that school's first
librarian and a teacher of law. In 1855, after years of work, he published
a comprehensive, two-volume history of Texas. He and his wife Eveline
(Cannon) had nine children. Descendants are still active in cultural
life of Texas. |
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