Architecture
"Old" Main Building
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.
History
Akin Hill
A landmark on the "Old Colony Road" between Huntsville and Ryan's Ferry on the Trinity River. Named for Thomas Akin (1828-78), a native of Mississippi, who came to Texas in 1853 with his wife, Ruth Leakey Akin, whom he met and married in Bienville Parish, La., along the way.
History
Anthony Martin Branch
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.
History
Austin College Building
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).
Architecture
Austin Hall
Austin Hall, the original building of Austin College, erected in 1851 and used continuously for educational purposes by Austin College to 1876, by a private academy from 1876 to 1879, by Sam Houston State Teachers College from 1879.
History
Ball, The Rev. Thomas H.
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.
History
Bath Cemetery
Bath Cemetery, near Union Hill Church, was established in the 1870s. The earliest recorded burial is that of William Arnold (d. 1877). The burial ground has served the Bath community, locally called Possum Walk since that time, and area residents and descendants of settlers continue to maintain the property.
History
Besser, General John Slater
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.
History
Bethea Creek
A tributary of the Trinity River, Bethea Creek (pronounced Buh-thay) is named for John and Elizabeth Bethea, pioneer settlers of the area. John settled in present-day Walker County in the 1830s and was an early gristmill operator and postmaster in the nearby riverport settlement of Newport, now a ghost town.
History
Bishop Ward Normal and Collegiate Institute
Following the end of slavery, African American communities established education institutions for freed African Americans. After the end of Reconstruction, federal funding for African American schools decreased, so African American churches often funded these schools.
History
Black Jack Methodist Church and Cemetery
Settlement of this area began in the 1830s. Black Jack Methodist Church was organized in 1871 and a sanctuary was built about four miles west of this site. The congregation moved here in 1886, and land for a new sanctuary and cemetery was given by Mrs. Sophronia Jane Warren. Trustees of the new church were Henry Lee Taylor, A. W. McKenzie, and Stephen Johnson.
Architecture
Boettcher House
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.
History
Camp Huntsville, World War II Prisoner of War Camp
Camp Huntsville, completed here in 1942, was one of the first prisoner of war (POW) camps built in the U.S. during World War II. Designed to house 3,000 POWs, it had more than 400 buildings, as well as eight branch camps. The first POWs, part of Germany's Afrika Corps, arrived in spring 1943, and by fall the population peaked at 4840.
History
Capt. Benjamin I. Harper
Benjamin Ingram Harper (b. 1809) came to Texas from Virginia, and in 1833, he worked as a schoolmaster in Liberty County. He wed Evelina Vocum in 1834 and had a son. The next year, under Andrew Briscoe, he fought at the battle of Concepción and the Siege of Bexar. In 1836, commissioned as a second lieutenant, he organized a company to assist at the Alamo.
History
Chalk Cemetery
Founded in the 1870s on land owned by Lacy Harrington, this cemetery takes its name from the geologic features of the area. The earliest documented burial is that of Civil War veteran Barney Carroll (1835-1880), although local oral tradition suggests the existence of older, unmarked graves.
History
Christopher C. Edinburg
Came to Texas 1824. Fought at San Jacinto. Died in 1864
History
Clapp Cemetery
According to local tradition this cemetery was established by deed in 1853 to prevent people of mixed Native American and pioneer American heritage from being buried in other area cemeteries. The first person known to be buried here was Martha Johnston Andrews in 1860. The cemetery is closely associated with the nearby Pleasant Grove Baptist Church.
History
Cunningham, Minnie Fisher
(March 19, 1882-December 9, 1964) A native of Walker County, Minnie Fisher earned a pharmacy degree at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston in 1901. She worked in a Huntsville drugstore and married attorney B. J. Cunningham in 1902. They moved to Galveston in 1907, and she later lived in Austin and Washington, D.C.
History
Dodge
The town of Dodge was established in 1872, when the Houston and Great Northern Railroad built a line through this area. W. J. Johnson gave land for the railroad right-of-way with the stipulation that a station be built at the new settlement. The town was platted along the tracks, with streets named for early pioneers.
History
East Sandy Community
The Sandel and Powell families moved to this area from Mississippi in the 1850s, helping establish a community church and school in this vicinity. The Rev. Peter W. Sandel (1806-1866) arrived and bought property in October 1851. Twice married, he lived here with his second wife, Louisa J. (Winborn), and children from both marriages. Oliver Powell (1815-1892) also bought land here.
Architecture
Eastham-Thomason House
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.
History
Ebenezer Cemetery
Along with Ebenezer Baptist Church, this cemetery organized in 1854 on land donated by Jonathan and Sarah McGary along a stagecoach road from Huntsville to Austin. Prominent Baptist minister J.W.D. Creath, representing the Southern Baptist Convention, organized the church. Richard Pace was the first pastor of the congregation and is buried here.
History
Elijah Collard
(November 9, 1778 - March 13, 1847) Born in Virginia, Elijah Collard later settled on the frontier in Kentucky and in Missouri, where he fought in the War of 1812. Collard migrated to Texas in 1833. He was elected to the Consultation at San Felipe in 1835 and served on the General Council. In 1837, when Montgomery County was created, he was named one of the first commissioners.
History
Emancipation Park
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.
History
Forrest Lodge No. 19, A.F. & A.M.
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".
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.
