History
Black Cemetery
This pioneer burial ground contains more than a dozen graves of African Americans. The land was part of the Veals addition to the town of Fort Griffin. Milton Sutton bought the property at public auction in April 1882. Two visible markers are for Elijah Earls (d.
Transport
Bud Matthews Switch of the Texas Central Railway
In 1900 the Texas Central Railway extended a line northwest from Albany across this portion of Rose Ella (Matthews) Conrad's cattle ranch. Ella and her brother John A. "Bud" Matthews, for whom this site is named, promptly constructed cattle pens and a loading chute at this location. Surrounding ranchers soon were shipping their cattle from this switch to markets in Fort Worth.
History
City of Albany
Chosen county seat of Shackelford in 1874, Albany had a 43-acre townsite donated by Sheriff Henry C. Jacobs. County clerk W. R. Cruger named city for his old home, Albany, Ga. A wooden picket courthouse was erected. The post office opened August 1, 1876. By late 1877 there were 16 buildings - homes, hotels, saloons, a blacksmith shop. Merchants were T. E. Jackson and firm of Woody & Hatcher.
History
Civilian Conservation Corps at Fort Griffin
THE CIVILIAN CONSERVATION CORPS (CCC) OPERATED NATIONWIDE BETWEEN 1933 AND 1942 TO CONSERVE NATURAL RESOURCES AND TO PROVIDE WORK FOR YOUNG MEN DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION. THE FEDERAL PROGRAM PROVIDED EMPLOYMENT FOR 2.5 MILLION YOUNG MEN WORKING OUT OF 3,000 CAMPS. ROUGHLY 50,000 TEXANS WERE ENROLLED IN THE CCC AND MADE A SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTION TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE STATE'S PARK SYSTEM.
Industry & Science
Cook Ranch Oil Field
William Ivy Cook (1857-1923) and his wife Matilda moved to this county in 1985. With a brother-in-law, J. H. Nail, Cook purchased a 27.75-section ranch. The Cooks bought out Nail in 1898, and have owned the ranch ever since. During the 1918 Breckenridge and Ranger booms, Cook sold leases but prophesied he could drink from his hat all of the oil under his land.
Industry & Science
Cottle No.1, First Gas Well in Shackelford County
The appearance in 1908 of oil and gas in water wells in this vicinity prompted the Texas Company (later Texaco, Inc.) in June 1909 to begin leasing large tracts of land. After a surface geological survey, a wooden derrick complete with cable tools and steam engine was erected by contractor F. J.
History
Family Forts, C.S.A.
Few in numbers and with little protection from the military but refusing to abandon their country, certain families of courageous and determined people on the Texas frontier during the Civil War gathered together in hastily constructed stockades and held out against the threats of hostile Indians and renegade whites.
History
First Christian Church
In December 1886, evangelist J. P. Pinkerton led 26 people from 19 families to found this church. Members met in the Shackelford County Courthouse. Miss Betty Parker then gave $50 to buy land for a one-room frame building completed in January 1889 at South Third and Pecan. In 1920, the church sold that property to the American Legion, when Mrs. J. W.
History
Fort Griffin Civil Jail
This structure was the jail used in the town of Fort Griffin located 15 miles north of here, near the United States Army Post of Fort Griffin which defended the frontier from 1867 to 1881. During this period lawlessness was common in the town. Citizens built this thick-walled jail in 1878, although a conspicuous stone bears an earlier date.
History
Frontier Town of Fort Griffin
In the 19th century, the U.S. government established forts along Texas' frontier to protect pioneers. By the early 1850s, Col. Jesse Stem farmed along the Clear Fork of the Brazos River, and Thomas Lambshead established his Clear Fork Farm. As others moved to the area, troops at Camp Cooper in present-day Throckmorton County, including then-Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee, provided military defense.
History
Goodnight-Loving Trail in Shackelford County
Shackelford County was an unorganized and largely unsettled county of 914 square miles when Oliver Loving (1812-1867) and Charles Goodnight (1836-1929) engaged in cattle drives through the region between 1866 and 1867 along what would become their namesake trail.
History
Granville E. Waters
Born in Ashtabula County, Ohio in April 1852, Granville Eades Waters came to Texas in 1871. He settled in the north central part of the state before moving to Shackelford County in 1876. The next year, he wed Rennie Harris, daughter of a Waco mayor. The couple settled in a log cabin near Deep Creek, a few miles north of Hulltown (present Moran).
History
H. C. Jacobs House
First permanent home in Albany. Built 1875 of stone from nearby deposits by Henry Carter Jacobs (1842-94), an organizer and the first sheriff of Shackelford County. A Kentuckian, Civil War veteran, and surveyor, Jacobs platted town of Albany, donated courthouse and Presbyterian church sites, led in move for a railroad here.
History
Ibex
Oil drilling in the 1920s transformed this area from cattle ranches to a boomtown. In 1919, the Ibex Oil Co. drilled a successful well into the Caddo Lime formation. Soon other drilling companies came and wooden derricks spread for miles. In 1921, Ibex sold their leases to the Landreth Co. Ed Landreth built a gasoline refinery, water-powered by a dam on Hubbard Creek.
History
Jackson Warehouse
T. E. Jackson, a prominent businessman from Fort Griffin (15 miles north) built this structure in the late 1870s as a warehouse for a general merchandise store. For more than 100 years, it served the town of Albany as the site of various commercial business, including photography studios and a cafe. The well-known department store Sanger Brothers owned the Jackson Warehouse from 1887 until 1906.
History
Ledbetter Picket House
William Henry Ledbetter (1833-84), a native of Georgia, came to Texas in 1858, and established a salt works on Hubbard Creek (8 miles southwest) in 1862. Ledbetter withstood fierce Indians attacks before moving near Fort Griffin (15 miles north). He was elected first county judge in 1875.
History
Ledbetter Salt Work, C.S.A.
Located 8 miles southwest on Salt Prong, Hubbard Creek. Discovered 1861 by trail drives. W. H. Ledbetter began extensive development of deposits in 1862 with increased Civil War demand for salt. A large furnace was built, kettles and materials for refining were brought from East Texas by wagon.
Military
Lt. Col. William E. Dyess
(August 9, 1916 ' December 22, 1943) A native of Albany, and a graduate of Albany High School and John Tarleton Agricultural College, William Edwin Dyess was the son of Judge Richard T. and Hallie Graham Dyess. Trained as a pilot at Randolph Field, San Antonio, he led the 21st Pursuit Squadron of P-40s in the Phillipines, where he was when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and the U.S.
Military
Lt. Col. William E. Dyess
(Aug. 9, 1916 - Dec. 22, 1943) A graduate of Albany High School, William Edwin Dyess was an aviation and infantry commander in the Phillipines during World War II. Captured at the fall of Bataan in 1942, he survived the Death March and escaped his captors a year later. Back in the U.S.
History
Moran
Pioneers came to this area as early as the 1860s. During the Civil War (1861-65), they built the temporary fortress settlement of Mugginsville on Deep Creek. At one time, a branch of the western cattle trail passed nearby. Population increased after the arrival of the Texas Central Railroad in 1881.
History
Moran Cemetery
After Hulltown (later Moran) was founded in 1883, nearby Dennis and Johnson Cemeteries were the only burial grounds. In 1896, Moran citizens elected local business leaders Matthew D. Bray, Aaron J. Thomas and John W. Despain as trustees for the purpose of laying out and supervising a public burial ground. On March 19, 1896, the trustees bought 2 1/3 acres two miles east of Moran from Mr. and Mrs.
History
Robert Edward Nail, Jr.
Robert (Bobby) Nail graduated from Albany High School in 1926. In New Jersey, at Lawrenceville Prep. School and Princeton U., his literary activities were highly acclaimed. Nail directed theater groups in Fort Worth, Dallas and Abilene before returning to Albany. In 1938, he wrote Doctor Shackelford's Paradise, which became Fort Griffin Fandangle, the oldest outdoor musical in Texas.
History
Rye-Caperton House
Built in 1874, and used as an office building, this structure was moved here in 1879 from Fort Griffin. Owner Edgar Rye was a newspaper publisher, cartoonist, and held numerous elective offices. Rye sold the building in 1896 to Anna F. Caperton, who modified its appearance in 1902-06, and used it as a home.
History
Shackelford County
Formed from Bosque County; created February 1, 1858; organized September 12, 1874. Named in honor of Dr. Jack Shackelford 1790-1857; captain of the "Red Rovers," a company from Alabama which became a unit of Fannin's command - one of the few spared by the Mexicans in the Massacre at Goliad. Albany, the county seat. (1936)
History
Shackelford County Courthouse
Built 1883-84 from plans by J. E. Flanders of Dallas, architect for several other 1880s Texas courthouses. Edgar Rye of Albany was construction superintendent. Kilted Scottish Masons erected the walls of stone quarried a few miles southwest of town. The foundations rest two feet deep on "natural concrete" (caliche). Budgeted at $27,000.00; final cost was $49,433.75.
Elsewhere in Texas
Hear it from the road
Whistlestop tells you this story automatically when you drive past. No searching, no tapping, nothing to ask.
