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Town of
Dacus,
Montgomery County Texas
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"Old
Dacus"
by Narcissa Martin Boulware
This is a series of articles printed in the
Montgomery County News
in 2002.
I've Been Thinking, Historical Account
of the Montgomery Area
Old Dacus, Chapter 1
This article begins the story of the birth
of a very important part of Texas history. As you will read, this part
began just a short six miles northwest of the town of Montgomery, site
of the courthouse, seat of all politics and political wars, site of
the earliest churches and a continuous theme in Montgomery County
history.
The life story of F.A.B. Wheeler, told in
this family history, began the continuous line of descent which led to
one of our popular Governors of the State of Texas. When Wheeler
choose the place in all his land he acquired as a part of the Stephen
F. Austin deal in 1823, to establish his home, he inadvertently,
selected the area that became the home of the great grandfather of our
later Texas governor, Price Daniel of Liberty, Texas. When F.A.B.
Wheeler offered "free land to any who met his standards of character"
he made no mistake when he accepted Allen Lowery to move near him,
just west of the settlement first called Bethel. No doubt Lowery being
a hard and fast Baptist influenced Wheeler, but when Lowery married
Wheeler’s daughter, the bond and influence between Wheeler and Lowery
brought many blessings to both families and to the rapidly growing
community. The next man to join the circle of the greater "mover and
shakers" of the little community was George Daniels, a young man who
was baptized into the Baptist Church in Georgia when he was fourteen
years old. When Daniels mother died and his father married again and
started anther family, he caught a ride with other immigrants and
headed for Montgomery County. He arrived in the Bethel-Wheeler-Lowery
home area and was quickly welcomed into that group. Wheeler and Lowery
had such influence and guidance that three years later George married
Lowery’s daughter Sarah and three years later was ordained a Baptist
minister.
Although the story of George M. Daniels is
not to say that there were no more good men to help shape the Bethel
and later "Old Dacus" communities, but the Daniels’ story is three
generations closer to those of us today, trying to put together the
birth, life and death of a very unusual settlement of people who
created, prospered, contributed to their county, but lived in their
own self-contained world.
Paul Martin, a native of the
Bethel-Dacus area and his father
C.L. Martin
raised in that area have spent many hours
helping to re-create this very unique church and post office, so near
and yet so far from the mother town of Montgomery. Paul is a very busy
young man, being heavily involved among other things as First Vice
President of the very active Montgomery County Genealogical and
Historical Society Inc., of Conroe, Texas located in the Montgomery
County Library. Besides raising a family, holding down a job, he is
very involved in his church work. His father
C.L. Martin,
being raised in that area and remembering everything he ever knew,
heard or saw is usually the last word we need to complete a story.
As the narrator of this story I’m afraid
it will be rather disjointed . Each bit of information would be so
exciting I would hastily write it down, then would follow something to
move along the years beginning in 1825 when Wheeler "came to town" and
then another bit of news would come that applied to a chapter I had
already finished and reverting back had to have an explanation and so
on. Ignore any repeats, all the paragraphs have the basis of truth.
Just poorly put together. The lives of Wheeler and Lowery have not
been recorded nearly as fully as Daniels of course because Daniels
lived longer and was researched fully because his grandson Price
Daniels such a high office in the State of Texas. I did not have a
very informative history of Geo. M. Daniels when I was writing this
"Old Dacus" account. In fact, I was completely finished with the story
when Paul Martin, not being satisfied with my spare mention, decided
he would go to the best source of information on Daniels, the Sam
Houston Regional Library and Research Center at Liberty, Texas. He
invited myself and his father to go along. Although we were greeted
nicely, we were politely told there was little we would find and that
the real "inside" story was upstairs and closed for repairs. Paul is a
very experienced "never say die" researcher and when we left we had
several armloads of the necessary information.
Again I ask, forgive the repeats in this
writing and any other errors. So much more could be written about the
people, the church, the school and the community and if it was known
it would be book size. |
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Old Dacus, Chapter 2
In modern real estate sales vernacular it is
said that the three most valuable assets to a property are "location,
location, location". Perhaps here the location of the subject property "Old
Dacus-Bethel" should be defined in the present day ownership of the areas.
Many hours of research helped by voluminous newsprint from the two
communities by correspondents of the two separate locations seems to divide
them thusly; Old Dacus seemed to have begun about where Dr. Henry Fields
Carwile operates his ranch and laboratory. That land in the time of Old
Dacus was lived on by the Stanley "Bud" Binford family. The families of
Binfords, Carrolls and Bloomfields had homes there. Then we must go down the
road between the Carwiles place and the Ruben Simonton ranch to take in
"Gay’s Grove" a huge plantation. Here we are traveling north on F.M. Road
1097 west, this road in its beginning know as the Montgomery-Anderson road
later Montgomery-Longstreet road, leaving present day Pecan Hill ranch
(Simonton), we next come to the Uzzell homestead (circa 1835) and the
location of the now destroyed Uzzell family graveyard. This can now be
located by a new road called Watson Ranch road which leads to the large
ranching property owned by the descendants of Russell Berkley, a man who
wore many hats. We then come to the Evans home and land and the Archie
Casburn homestead. This is the place Mollie Ward Ferguson, an aunt to
Montgomery’s much loved Nellie Ward Weisinger describes as the George
Mayfield Daniel home and the Hopewell School, this is also the location of
the James Goodin store and where the post office was petitioned for, was
obtained and was named Dacus. The post office petition was approved in 1889.
It is my belief that the Old Dacus community ended about where the now
existing Johnson Road takes off to the left off F.M. 1097 west. In the past,
the Curling homestead, the Olivers, Bristers Casburns and many other
settlers lived down Bailey Grove road which turns right off F.M. 1097 west
and goes across land to come out on F.M. 149. Once known as the
Montgomery-Huntsville road.
Many of those living on the 1097 west end of the
Bailey Grove road brought their slaves with them when they settled at Bethel
and the descendants of those slaves still live along Bailey Grove. Going
north on 1097 west past the Bailey Grove road we past what was the Holmes
brothers farms and homesteads, that being the families of the brothers
Audrey, Sam and John Holmes. Next we come to Bethel Road which turns sharply
to the left of F.M. 1097 west. This road in the past went in a northwest
direction to Longstreet and Anderson passing the exit on the left of Bethel
Road and still traveling north, we find the location of the first Bethel
Church and school and the still very much loved and cared-for Bethel
Cemetery. The graveyard and church/school is on the left side of the road
and quite a few descendants whose families created the Bethel Baptist Church
and school recall vividly the stories their parents or grandparents told of
going to this first recorded church/school on the edge of that great "piney
woods" forest. Using the records of the Montgomery County courthouse,
various writings by both natives and historians stories told by individuals,
census reports, names of families.
Now for those people who never knew of this
little world-within-a-world ever existed, and for those who are interested
in knowing and for those descendants of the first Dacus-Bethel settlers who
never knew their beginnings and for those who always knew and want to
revisit and refresh their memories, drive out F.M. 1097 west and locate the
scene of a very important part of history of Montgomery County and the town
of Montgomery. |
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Old Dacus, Chapter 3
When F.A.B. Wheeler chose the Old Dacus site to
settle in Montgomery County in 1825, Grimes and Walker County were also a
part of Montgomery County. Considering that the population of all three
combined counties was only 1775 people, it is understandable that the
Dacus-Bethel communities encompassed a large area. There were no roads, only
trails made and used by the Indians, wild cattle, deer, wild hogs and the
predators that searched for food at night. One time, the trails or crude
roads hacked out by the settlers was the chore and responsibility for
repairs and upkeep of the owners of the land that the road crossed over. In
Montgomery County Commissioners Court minutes dated March 1st, 1838 to 1840,
I find an order to Charles Stewart, Griffin, McNeil, Henderson and Patterson
to "view and change the present road from Montgomery to Huntsville so as to
intersect between Little Lake Creek and Caney Creek, the new road to be
Precinct 13". This road would now be F.M. 149 and the intersecting road
turning right and East is now F.M. 1375. From that point there is at that
time an indefinable line to the north-Northwest if we were to travel past
that intersection. It is certain that the settlers at the Old Dacus site
eventually crossed over at that road through the forest to get to the
settlement known as the Mount Pleasant Baptist Community to the east. For
some reason the settlers seemed to halt settling north of the Bethel and
Mount Pleasant communities for quite a while. The Dacus-Bethel and Mount
Pleasant settlements consisted of families moving from the Eastern states,
bringing relatives, friends, neighbors and many others seeking religious
freedom, each area quickly founding churches, Sunday schools and school
houses.
The road from the present day Dacus community,
birthdate 1907 when the first train came through there following Big Lake
Creek from Dobbin to the south, did not run along F.M. 1486 as it does
today, the old road followed Big Lake Creek a short way south crossed the
creek and went to Montgomery in a south-east direction. There at some point
on its way to Montgomery the road would veer off northeast, perhaps on the
vast Price Plantation and circle north east to enclose the first property we
knew as the Carwile farm, ranch and laboratory. Thus both communities Bethel
and Old Dacus established firm headquarters along the same road, barely
three miles apart, each reaching out west and established strong holds on
settlers as far away as Anderson, then known as Fanthorpe and the community
called Applonia. Considering the evidence left us, both the written and
spoken word, it is not hard to believe that the two communities had one
thing in common, that being their love of their Baptist Church and its
teachings.
Now that those, who read this know where you are
in relation to the location of the site of Old Dacus, the story will try to
move on to the little recorded years of our subject people in the before the
Civil War period.
F.A.B.Wheeler the first recorded settler of Old
Dacus, built his cabin close by where the private Lowery Cemetery is being
kept well tended today. Allen Lowery was Wheeler’s son-in-law, dear to
Wheeler’s heart, Lowery was a devout Baptist and in time became an ordained
minister and as time passed, became the great grandfather of Price Daniel, a
much loved Governor of Texas. It is believed that Wheeler is buried in his
son-in-law’s burial plot which is located near the Bill and Della Binford
homestead, a short way west of both Old Dacus and Bethel. When Wheeler’s
daughter married Lowery and the Lowery’s daughter married George Daniel, a
three-some strong family of Baptists was formed and the three families and
their children built the foundation of the Bethel Baptist Church and served
in any adjoining community that needed them. The book "The Centenial Story
of Texas, Baptists" it was recorded that in 1835 there was only one Baptist
Church in Texas and less than fifty Baptists and notes that the Mount
Pleasant Church was established in 1838. This church would have been some
six miles due east as the crowflies from Old Dacus with no road at all. |
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Old Dacus, Chapter 4
Under
the Mexican rule all persons entering Texas had to take an oath to practice
the Catholic religion. In the book "Centennial Story of Texas Baptists",
I found this statement; "A Baptist minister, Isaac Reed, says it would have
cost a man his life to have preached in any faith other the Catholic
doctrines". As a result Z. N. Morrell, who came from Tennessee was so
provoked that he was not to be allowed to pursue his Baptist ministry he was
determined to move westward, and whether peacefully or with violence, plant
the Baptist religion in the new land. Ministers were rarely paid a salary or
even paid at all in those times and Rev. Morrell had tried his hand at being
a merchant to support his family and enable him to preach. He was slowly
moving into the southern part of Texas and while living at the mouth of the
Trinity River, he decided he wanted to move to Montgomery County and
establish the first Baptist church. He kept a diary of his daily life and
work and later he wrote a prized book "Fruits and Flowers of the
Wilderness, 1835 to 1871, or Thirty Six years in Texas". He traveled a
round-about way to get to Montgomery County, but where ever he was, in
defiance of the Mexican rule he spread the Baptist faith any where he was
allowed to speak. In his journey\y toward Montgomery County he arrived in
Old Washington, where he states; "I had some lots of merchandise that I
proposed to sell but finding selling goods does not suit a preachers life. I
cast about to find a buyer. Peter J. And R.S. Willis (my great uncle and
great grandfather) were acting as my clerks at Old Washington and to them I
sold my remnant of goods on a credit at a cost and ten percent. Taking
business at hand they paid me promptly for the goods and by good management
and hard labor have reached their present positions". NOTE: The Willis
brothers then opened a store in Anderson and finally arrived in Montgomery
to open their huge store in Montgomery in 1843, they built the homes
Cathalor and Magnolia, both homes are still standing and on several times
each year are opened to the public.
Back to Old Dacus, Z.N. Morrell had made his way
to Anderson and organized and established with the help of other hard-shell
Baptist workers in that area, an association known as the "General
Convention of Anderson, Texas" Allen Lowery, F.A. B. Wheeler’s son-in-law
and an Old Dacus resident was a charter member of this association. Morrell
also established a Baptist Church in Anderson and began traveling to
outlying communities urging the establishing of churches and Sunday Schools.
Lowery took up the task at Old Dacus and found willing joiners and workers
in some of the first Dacus families, such as those of R.F. Oliver, Burrell
Anders, Lyndia Uzzell, Martha Oliver, Phoebe Rigby and John Thomas. These
leading citizens were anxious to have their own church and school, there was
no church in Montgomery the nearest trading post. The route across the
forest to Mount Pleasant was too hard because of the creeks and heavy timber
that buggies and wagons could not manage. Not to be defeated and urged on by
Lowery, a group of Old Dacus residents, led by Elisha Uzzell, the above
groups traveled to Montgomery where Elisha made the motion and submitted the
articles of faith and thus in 1850, the present day, Montgomery Baptist
Church was born.
Since the terrible hardships and pain the first
settlers endured to establish the great state where we live now, I think any
of the stories of those first people which tell of how they coped with their
problems should be told and re-told because it is history and will never be
done again. In the book Montgomery County History, compiled by the
Conroe Genealogical Society, the first settler, about 1825, was Francis A.B.
Wheeler, whose cabin was about forty miles from the nearest place to obtain
ammunition and any other needs he could not glean from his land and forest.
The only trading posts were at Old Washington, San Felipe and Nacogdoches.
Wheeler went twice a year to purchase powder, lead, salt and coffee. Stories
of those first wilderness families show they owned only the barest of
necessities such as a gun, axe, one iron pot and perhaps some gourd or bone
utensils. |
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Old Dacus, Part 5
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In the Old Dacus story, no written record of a
first settler in that area other than F.A.B. Wheeler in the 1825 period and
so we will rely on his experience. His recorded experience tells of being
attacked by Indians and his cabin burned. When the cabin burned, the family,
if they escaped with their lives had nothing. They were then faced with
walking great distances, dangerous in many ways, to hope to find another
settler, one who had escaped the same fate. Wheeler had been given a large
amount of land for military service and after the Indian attack he
apparently established himself again. There is evidence of another settler
in the area, Warren Goodin who bought land in that area in 1823. Wheeler
wanted neighbors and he made an offer of free land to anyone who would be an
acceptable neighbor. It is possible that Wheeler’s offer may have been the
inducement that prompted Uzzell family’s migration. Mr. J. T. Montgomery
writes in his family genealogy "Elisha Uzzell left Alabama in 1839 with a
caravan of thirty families and moved to Dacus, Montgomery County. His
brother, Major Uzzell followed in 1851". The settlers arriving in the
1830-1840 period saw a much better time that Wheeler and Goodin. As the
cabins got closer together accounts tell of the settlers getting together to
build their cabins or of borrowing an axe or a froe to make or smooth one
side of the logs to use for the floor of the house. The "boards" were simply
crude slabs of wood cut from newly a newly fallen tree, hacked out with an
axe. Masonic Lodge records containing the names of their 1840 census show
some of the earliest Dacus settlers. We find these names; Thomas Gilmore,
Charles and August Janisch, Daniel McLeod, sometimes pronounced and spelled
as "McCloud", William S. Taylor, James Thomas, G.M. Daniel, Allen Lowery,
the Welch, Goodin, Forrest, Talley, Rigsby, Doyle, Carson, Fralick, Nugent,
Moore, Heaton, Sheffer, and Uzzell families. The famous author J.Frank Dobie
gives an illustration of those first families in the Dacus area in its
beginning when he writes "our pioneer acceptance of circumstances beyond
their control is shown when a frontier host says to a stranger passing
through, ‘ you sleep on this buffalo hide and I’ll rough it on the floor’".
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The greatest danger to those first people was
the Indians. The unpredictable savage, silent attacks brought terror, and
death to many of the first. Although the Wheeler family survived their
Indian attack, another family the Taylor’s living in an area circled by the
Anderson, Longstreet, Dacus communities in 1838 was attacked by roving
Indians. They caught Mr. Taylor close by their cabin, close enough for Mrs.
Taylor to know he had been killed and where his body lay and when she
grabbed her small child by the hand to go to her husband in the hope of
saving him, the Indians waylaid her and killed both her and the child. This
aroused a group of settlers and banding together prepared to pursue the
killers. Accounts say the group led by a "Mr. Kindred" probably a Mr.
Kennard an early settler there, joined by Mr. Hadley and directed by
Jeremiah Worsham (my great-great grandfather) the group chased but failed to
capture the killers.
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One of the first, (if not the first) Baptist
ministers in the vast area between Trinity and Brazos river was Z.N. Morrell
who wrote of his life there in his book "Fruits and Flowers of The
Wilderness, Texas in 1835 to 1871" While living for awhile in Gonzales on
his way to Old Washington, states; "Indian attacks were constant and it
became the custom, since two of our men had been killed to take our guns
wherever we went." A single family with only one gun had no chance. A few
women were taken captive, but more likely an occasional child’s life was
spared and then taken as a captive.
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Old Dacus, Chapter 6
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Another recording of an Indian attack was that
experience by a very prominent first settler closer to Old Dacus, is told in
the General Land Office in Austin. When lawyer Theodore R. Smyth, General
Counsel for Sam Houston sought to buy land near Dobbin, Circa 1843. He had
applied several years before he finally acquired the land. The delay was
caused by the killing of the surveyor of the tract by a band of Indians.
Theodore Smyth a very educated man was the ancestor of many teachers and
professional descendants, one of which lived her last years in Montgomery,
Mattie Sneed, born in the Smyth family was one of the most beloved teachers
ever hired by the Montgomery schools. Untold numbers of first and second
grade students owe their successful entry into to education to this kind,
loving teacher.
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In 1828, the settlements were small and widely
scattered. The area which was to become "Old Dacus" was described as being
about six miles northwest of Montgomery on the Montgomery-Anderson road,
later it was called the Bethel Road and the present day is 1097 West. My
able, efficient, hard-working history detectives Charles Lee Martin and his
son Paul are confident they are going to prove that this same road began out
of Montgomery under the name "Leona Road" about the time the Wheeler’s,
Goodin’s, Lowery’s and others were settling in the area. We can read from
Mr. J.T. Montgomery’s account of the many trails used by the Indians in
their summer-winter migrations in and around the Dacus, Dobbin, Bethel, New
Dacus, Richards and Longstreet areas, traveling up and down Big Lake Creek,
Little Lake Creek and Caney Creek.
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Early travelers along the high areas both east
and west of Lake Creek could look from the Longstreet-Bays Chapel area and
from the high hills of Montgomery and Dobbin and see huge herds of buffalo,
the mainstay of Indian life and of great importance to our early people.
Although it is almost unbelievable to us today, from all accounts, our
subject area was mostly prairie. Many areas were located by their names such
as Shannon’s Prairie, Tillous Prairie, Mink’s Prairie, Decker’s Prairie,
Lost Prairie, Prairie Plains and to the east a community still known as
Tarkington Prairie.
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William Boallert, an Englishman sent to the
Mexican owned land called Texas, with an eye toward persuading immigrants to
settle there, kept a record of his travels and of several visits to
Montgomery and the area. On one of his trips here in 1843, he tells of meals
served to him by the early families being "bear’s flesh and sassafras tea".
He adds, "The yaupon leaves to my taste make a better tea. I shot a sand
crane weighing thirteen pounds, good eating like duck, if well stuffed".
This visit in 1843 tells of his host, Mr. Robson, entertaining him on hunts
for fox, coon possum, squirrel, bear, deer, panther and leopard. It is
believed that Mr. Robson lived southwest of Old Dacus in the vicinity of the
present day William Berkley Ranch. Mr. Boallert also tells of visiting with
a "Mr. Uzzell who told him of the abundance of buffalo in the Dacus area in
1844". Added accounts of the people living there in the 1830's and 1840's
were given by Gustav Dressell, a traveler-author who told of trying to go
from Huntsville to Montgomery and found himself on a cold, rainy night,
unable to cross a stream (it was probably Little Lake Creek) at the regular
crossing. He backtracked and spent the night with Henry Travis, a chairmaker
who lived near Elisha Uzzell and Allen Lowery. Robert Montgomery names
others of that area as being school teacher Evans, a Mister Stoner, Charles
and August Janisch. Bessie Owen Prices tells of a chair that she saw and
examined, that had the name "Travis-maker" found on the bottom of the chair
seat. Mr. Montgomery tells of an interview with my uncle J. B. "Buck"
Martin, who verified what Mr. Montgomery wrote of early life here.
Statistics and written word reflects that more and more settlers were
arriving in the area as life was becoming safer and easier.’
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Old Dacus, Chapter 7
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If our early Dacus settlers were fortunate
enough to get land near a neighbor who had been there long-enough to have
caught and tamed some of the wild longhorn cattle that roamed the woods and
the prairies about, the new settler might obtain milk from their owner. One
pioneer wrote, "I let the new folks use my cow on the promise that they
would turn her out on the free range by day, keep the calf penned up till
milking time and must not rob the calf of his share of the milk. I didn’t
want my calf knocked in the head with a churn dasher". That meant the milker
should not take all the milk, leaving none for the calf, thus taking more
for the family to drink or make butter using the crock churn with the wooden
dasher. He further states, "I don’t want them to make my calf a "dogie". The
meaning of "dogie" is a starved calf, underfed, under nourished, thus
stunting growth and making the animal much less valuable. In a book called
"Reminisces" by Arthur Wright, he tells of his marriage in 1856 and says,
"When we (he and his wife) put our possessions together, they consisted of
two cows, one rifle, one axe, a drawing knife, one skillet to cook our meat
and bread, two chairs and one homemade bedstead." It is safe to assume that
the parents of this couple probably had much less. The town of Montgomery
was advancing rapidly in every way although out in the Dacus area, land was
cheap. In some cases, as in F.A.B. Wheeler’s offer, land was free and one
offer for sale the owner wanted one hundred and twenty dollars for one
thousand acres. The traveler Boellart says there were cotton gins about
although the gin could produce only one bale a day. The Reverend Isaac Parks
of Fanthorpe, later and still known today as Anderson owned and operated a
gin of that period and most of the parts of the gin were made by hand from
wood, mostly "green" wood, if a part broke they simply took their axes and
found a suitable tree, cut it down and hewed out the part they needed.
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In the story written by Fanny Kemble when she
visited the gin on her husband’s slave-worked plantation in Georgia, she
tells of a room with eight cubicles where eight men sat at foot-powered
machines that stripped the lint from the cotton seed, thus preparing the
clean bales of seedless cotton. Reading from "East Texas, Its History and
Its Makers," we see in the absence of a cotton gin, the lint was picked from
seed by hand. A "Shoefull" was a mighty stint for every member of the family
or slave between supper and bedtime. In 1847, there were only 1775 people
living in the then not separated three adjoining counties and only 263 could
vote. Many of the first settlers brought slaves. Farming was the almost
total occupation in the Dacus area we are writing about, cotton being the
"Cash" crop, corn being the main sustenance of both human and animal life.
There were cattle and hogs, a gin and sawmill or two, but with very few
exceptions the way of life was farming. The town of Montgomery boasted of
having everything it needed, even the Courthouse.
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The German traveler Boellart tells of one of
his visits to Montgomery, "I was taken on December 7th, 1843 to a race
course," to see a much talked about horse race. Stanley (Bud) Binford a
descendant of two of the earliest families, the Carrolls and the Binfords,
remembers his father Bill Binford telling of two of his happy childhood
playgrounds, one being what was known as the "old race track" located on a
high ridge on what we now know as the William Berkley ranch. The other
playground was up and down Uzzell Branch, now lost by name but without a
doubt located on the first immigrants to reach Old Dacus, the Uzzell clan
homestead near Old Dacus.
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Old Dacus, Chapter 8
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Raising cotton, corn and food crops was a way
of life for Old Dacus people, as in every new community developed, families
arriving and sending back for their left behind kinfolks, citing the
abundance of everything to be found. Corn was the staff of life for man and
beast and the dependence on corn in their lives is plainly spoken worry even
in the midst of a happy occasion as told by Andrew McWhorter of Grimes
County in a letter he wrote on July 1, 1850. "On last Thursday my son, my
grandson and Mr. William Shannon married the three McNair systers. It would
seem they are not afraid of the scarcity of corn next year, although the
crop looks bad!"
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The years of history of our Old Dacus-Bethel
communities between 1855 and 1875 have left little record facts or news.
Certainly the Civil War had a terrible impact on everyone and every area.
There are letters and written reports of conditions and their effects on the
people in Montgomery and so, of course the situations would be the same six
miles northwest of Montgomery i.e. Dacus-Bethel. Through all of this time,
beginning with the advent of F.A.B. Wheeler, circa 1825, then the 1830's
settling in of the Uzzell caravan of thirty families, the story of Allen
Lowery, the stories given us in the diaries of Isaac Parks of Anderson and
his activity in the Bethel Baptist Church tells us that probably from the
time the Wheeler and son-in-law Allen Lowery came into Old Dacus area the
drive to establish a Baptist Church had begun. I believe that church and
school was being held in various homes, the desire, the need and the
determination shown in other ways would have brought then together to
practice their faith even in the face of great adversity. Written records of
the advent of George Mayfield Daniel into the Old Dacus area should be true
by virtue of the many widely recognized deeds done by his family following
in his footsteps. George Daniel has been said to move into the Old Dacus
area around 1863, two years into the Civil War when the true meaning of the
effects of the Civil War was object poverty. There is evidence that when
Daniel moved into Old Dacus there was instant rapport with Lowery, Uzzell,
Forrest, Thomas, Bloomfield and some of the widowed pioneer settlers and the
result was an immediate move to establish a church. It has been written that
the Mt. Pleasant Church located a probable mile east as the crow flies in
1863. It is a fact that the citizens of Old Dacus-Bethel and many other
adjoining groups attended and took part in the activities of the Mt.
Pleasant Church. Most records beginning about 1862, the second year of the
Civil War, during the Civil War and certainly during the terrible
reconstruction period, there were very few schools held, of course meaning
public schools. Though the County Court levied taxes for schools, cut the
county up into school districts and hired people to open, run, operate, hire
and pay for schools and teachers and supplies the sad facts are there was no
money. In the book East Texas; it’s History and its Makers by T.C.
Richardson he sums up the conditions of all Texas east of the Mississippi
River where the Confederacy had been closed off by the Union Army less than
a year into the war, all the seashore line from the Mississippi to Mexico
was under Northern Blockade to Texans and so our subject two or three
communities were reduced to self-containment. Goods from outside the towns
and villages were soon used up and only occasionally replenished at great
danger and expense. Crops were planted and harvested at first but as more
and more men went to war, those families who did not own slaves were left
with no one to plant, cultivate, harvest and store even the smallest of
crops sorely needed for their food. The county tried to care for the wives
and children and elderly left behind by the men at war but the county funds
were soon exhausted. Little coin came in for taxes, script was issued there
was confederate money offered in trade for necessities but by wars end, all
proved worthless in value.
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Old Dacus, Chapter 9
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I have no doubt that the over-powering urge to
practice their Baptist beliefs and to help their fellow man to do so, was
the motivation that led to both Allen Lowery and George Daniel to become
Baptist ministers. Lowery joined the Baptist Convention formed in Anderson (Fanthrope
at that time) in 1848. He was in fact a charter member and his association
with Isaac Parks led to quite a few visits by Parks’ to the later
established (at least by membership) Bethel Church; George Daniel followed
Lowery’s lead by contract and association with the hard working Parks far
reaching Anderson Church and soon after became Lowery’s son-in-law. It is
easy to see that perhaps our first recorded settler F.A.B. Wheeler, in his
offer to give free land to desirable neighbors, may have had a hand in
selecting and gaining a son-in-law that would work for his religious choice.
It did happen when Lowery became an ordained minister. In turn, when Lowery
married one of George Daniels’ the combination of Wheeler and Lowery was
what motivated Daniel to become a Baptist minister. It is not hard to
imagine how pleased Wheeler must have been at the results of his offer of
land to desirables neighbors.
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| In the published story "The Saga of Anderson"
by Irene Taylor Allen, she writes of a letter written by one of Daniel’s
daughters to her sister; "Papa (George Daniel) lived with Uncle Bob Jeter,
no kin, but papa loved them and I think papa was living with the Jeters’
when he married. The Jeters’ lived at Piney Grove." Piney Grove was a church
and community south of Anderson called Applonia. The saga story goes on to
say that "George Daniel read, studied and listened. He was jolly and
well-liked ( and must have been a practical joker). Once in the Jeter home
he asked one of the young girls if she knew why a goose sometimes stood on
only one foot? "To rest the other one, of course" she replied. George said
"Well, I knew only another goose would know the answer." She got even with
him though for the next time he came to visit to stay all night she got
permission to get his bed ready and when he went to bed he found fourteen
very heavy quilts on his bed! |
The Reverend Parks at Anderson was a
hard-riding tireless preacher and long distance from his home in Anderson to
a location, he had targeted for a church did in no way stop him. His
fourteen year (almost daily) diary tells of many visits from his
headquarters of the Baptist General Convention at Anderson to quite a few of
our Dacus settlers. Elisha Uzzell, Daniels, Lowery, Nugent and McCleod Parks
visited them and later in 1871, he spent nights and ate at their homes while
attending church in Bethel. Sam Houston was also a frequent visitor at
Anderson and though I have not found proof that Houston came to church at
Bethel, it is surely possible. Parks’ diary begins in 1861, one year into
the war and from that year until 1871, Parks was in constant motion
gathering people together to establish Baptist Churches. Many of them grew
and flourished, but for some the sites are now "ghost town" churches, such
as Fairview, just west of Richards where the prominent Brown and Haymie
families were hosts to Reverend Parks. The Reverend’s diary tells of his
visits to Pine Grove or Piney Grove at Applonia, home to some of the Uzzell
family and to Plantersville where the well-to-do Montgomery family made him
welcome and last but not least his visits to the Bethel Church. Parks tells
of Sam Houston’s visits to his home and of going with him to minister
several of his many churches even noting once that "Houston’s daughters are
here for the night". His diary also makes notes of frequent visits to his
home by some of our Dacus settlers. There can be little doubt that quite a
few of our Dacus-Bethel citizens were well–acquainted
with Houston.
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I found these notations about the Bethel Church
in Parks’ diary; June 2, 1871-went to Bethel Church, dined with Lowery. June
1871-stayed all night with McCleod (I think that this is the man who made
the chairs in the Old Dacus area) and dined with Uzzell. June 27th- stayed
the night with Nugent. June 30th- attended meeting at Bethel, then to
Montgomery spent night Harris. July 1, 1872 went to Worshams (my 6th
generation grandfather) at Montgomery, then to Harris meeting at Bethel,
dinner at Geo. McCleod. It has been well recorded, thus well-known of the
visits made by Sam Houston to Montgomery.
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The following story in Texas highways verifies
some of the tales told of his visits to Montgomery. This article by Kevin
Young of San Antonio says, "Perhaps the most sought after soul in Texas was
that of Sam Houston. He was rejected by the Presbyterians after he left his
wife, Houston became a Catholic long enough to become a Mexican citizen to
get into Texas. Houston, a notorious over-indulger, seemed to try to quit
drinking after his marriage to Baptist Margaret Lea. Margaret and the
Baptists won the bottle and Houston was formerly Baptized in Rocky Creek.
When a friend asked Houston if all his sins had been washed away, he said:
"I hope so, but if all of them washed away, the Lord helps the fish down
below.
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Old Dacus, Part 10
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The terrible effect of the Civil War on our
community and our surrounding sister communities began to come true in
1861-1862. I have found so far very few personal written records of our
beginning Texas forefathers but general accounts all over Texas were the
same as Montgomery and so of Old Dacus. Commissioners Court records show
sporadic payments to public school teachers, one being sixty three dollars
to a Miss Nannie Oliver as a teacher in a public school for the year of
1859. (Incidentally the term year, was probably for the months of November,
December and January).
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| Oliver, is a name listed as one of the oldest
settlers and teachers, at Old Dacus. Other teachers named in 1857 were
Charles L.S. Jones, E.C. Dealy and Julia Morrell, could this lady be kin to
the ever present Z.N. Morrell, the now famed Anderson based first Baptist
crusader? But alas, in the same breath, 1857, the court report of T.W.
Smith, County Treasurer says the school fund reports were destroyed. |
There must have been much unrest and intense
feelings about cessation talk and about slavery as early as 1855. Letters
written to his family from Anderson, Texas in 1854 by Mr. A.S. Beardsly as
published in the Grimes County History book says, "There was a bad cholera
scare here when twenty slaves out of seventy and fifteen whites out of
sixteen, all of them from the same plantation, died within a week of arrival
from Georgia." Also he tells, "When not busy around the house or sewing, it
takes the rest of the time to fight fleas, bedbugs and mosquitoes. War seems
to be looked upon as inevitable, but for my part, I do not feel much
alarmed." In spite of the Indians, insects, disease and the threat of an
impending Civil War, our Dacus people had gained much in the way of worldly
goods, but we must remember that as in the account in the Journal, "For a
wedding present the "brides" father gave her a horse, a cow and a twelve
year old slave girl." This was about the time around 1850, a bountiful start
to married life.
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Many stories of visitors or newly arrived
settlers talk of the dirt and filth inside the homes. The women had nothing
to use to combat these conditions. The use of lye soap, if they had it and
hot water was the whole of the tools she had in her fight to keep home,
clothes and body clean. The fight against ants and bedbugs was constant. One
source of relief to the lady of the house could be found at the Kirbee Kiln,
four miles south of Montgomery, a little southeast of the present day Lake
177 subdivision along F.M. 149, a.k.a. Old Houston Road. This kiln made
quite a few much needed pottery products. Jugs of all sizes, all purposes
and needs. One popular product was the several types of jugs needed to make
home-style liquor. They made crocks for the milk, crocks to can or preserve
foods and lard. The product of most value to the housewife was a small
pottery saucer- like vessel, with a high rim around it to put under each bed
or table leg. This cup-like article was large enough in width, that when
filled with water or any bug repellent, created a lake that the ant, roach
or bedbug must swim through to get to the table or bed. If the homeowner had
kerosene, popularly called coal-oil, these leg-cups when filled with the oil
or water were very effective.
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It is a certainty that all Texas inhabitants
had the problem of all manner of insects and with little or no manner of
protection. The mosquitoes were the cause of several terrible sieges of
yellow fever, killing thousands of people literally wiping out whole
families. The flea could and did carry fatal disease in their bites. An
account of a visit to Texas in 1852 in an East Texas Historical Journal
states, "I am in good health save for bedbugs and tick bites. There is a
little varmint here, a stinging lizard with a forked tail, a sting in each
fork." A young lady moving to Texas in 1861, states, "Visitors coming to
Texas should cover themselves in tar to ward off the ticks, redbugs, fleas
by the millions, centipedes, tarantulas and snakes gliding through the
grass."
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Old Dacus, Chapter 11
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The community of Old Dacus, as in all the new
settlements around Montgomery and Old Dacus, were trying to live and prosper
in spite of all the problems to be solved. One of the issues of the East
Texas Historical Journal very aptly describes the terrible never-ending
fight against filth, dirt, disease and death facing our forefathers. Water
was the primary need, the source of life as well as the follow-up needs.
Those who did not and could not live near a natural source of water, such as
a creek or lake or spring-fed branch had to have a dependable alternative
source of water. A hand-dug well was then a necessity or the water must be
hauled from an available source to the dwelling. The housewife had to fight
with not only the natural sources of filth, but also with the lack of water
to clean with. Further on, in my account of Old Dacus I will tell of one of
the wonders of Old Dacus, created by the settler Goodin when he created the
wonderful well of water, enclosed in a concrete curbing, this cold, clear
spring fed water becoming the source of life to many of the Dacus-Bethel
inhabitants.
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One visitor to Texas says, "the drawback to
Texas is the lack of good water. The traveler or rider must find a waterhole
and maybe drive away the copperhead or cotton mouth snake to get a drink."
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This section of written records of our
Montgomery, Old Dacus and sister communities tell of the next hardships, to
overcome to live in Texas, the beginning of the Civil War, finally a
reality, we have the privilege of reading from the always exact accounts
left by the very first lawyer citizen of the town of Montgomery, Judge Nat
Hart Davis. The almost total basis of the close personal details of the life
in Montgomery were kept and handed down to his descendants through Judge
Davis.
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In the town of Montgomery 1861-1862, Harley
Gandy’s book "A History of Montgomery County" he tells of interviewing Mrs.
J.B. Addison the grandmother of his wife, Martha Gandy. Martha is a direct
descendant of the famed Nathaniel Hart Davis. This Davis family have
provided the major share of the written history of the town and County of
Montgomery. A Home Guard Company was formed in the town in 1861 and some of
the Davis family letters tell what the citizens were doing to help in the
war. "The young ladies were making pants for Captain Oliver’s home guard
taking the material home to sew,- another item; Davis and Ellis made rapid
sales of their goods especially calico. Davis sold $1000.00 a day for a few
day. Willis and brother (my own great grandfather and great uncle, prominent
merchants in Montgomery) have nearly sold our. P.J. Willis (my great uncle)
just returned from Alabama and Mississippi and says he will sell all his
stock of goods he has left, as his main stock is already gone. He says he
will not re-stock." (The Willis brothers moved to Galveston shortly after to
build a much larger business and my mother was born there).
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Another Davis letter owned by Mrs. J.B.
Addison, nee Davis, "I think my household can squeeze along the next year in
the war of clothes. I will wear osanburg pants next summer. I am not uneasy
about clothes next year, but I fear I may not have enough to eat. I have no
pork or salt. I believe I can buy and pay for salt and I have some hopes
that some of those who owe me will supply my smokehouse, we ourselves have
now have cornbread, beef, barley, coffee without sugar. We make some butter
and have a pretty good garden. Times are growing harder and men are becoming
more selfish."
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The next chapter of this account will continue
the Davis family account as written by Harley Gandy, a dedicated historian,
strictly adhering to truth and proof in his historical research as well as
excerpts from other citizens in nearby areas. Making do with what they had
in those first years of the war. The writers of these accounts were already
showing their despair and fear, little knowing the terrible conditions that
would follow.
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Old Dacus, Chapter 12
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To pick up where I left off in Chapter 11, I
quote again from Harley Gandy’s book "A History of Montgomery County," and
his quotes from the Davis-Addison family gives the history of one of the
first citizens of the town down to the present day evidenced by a written
and recorded paper trail and by the "Davis Cottage" and the Addison House,
alive and well even into today. The Civil War as it was in Montgomery.
"During the Civil War the Union controlled the East side of the Mississippi
River and all of the Florida and Texas Coast as far down as Mexico. The
provisions that were needed by the people east of the Mississippi and north
of all the shipping ports, to the south could not be obtained, because of
the Union Blockade. Shoes, clothing, salt, coffee and medicine were not to
be obtained. Cotton was the economy. Freighters made the three month trip
overland to Mexico to trade their baled cotton for the things they needed.
The Confederacy made demands on the farmer for their cotton titled
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"Tax-in-Kind" to support the Army. The Army
took so much of the cotton that the government was about to collapse and the
people struggling to grow the cotton were rapidity improvished and suffering
for the barest of necessities."
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The above information was taken from a 1964
edition of Texanna, the paragraph that impressed me very much reads as
follows; "against State and Confederacy, some of the farm women measured
their own needs and hi-jacked cotton haulers who were taking away the
tax-in-kind cotton, throwing off a few bales to be sold on behalf of the
growers."
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The following letters were written to Nat Hart
Davis or his wife Amelia in the beginning war years. The women of Montgomery
were very busy spinning and weaving. In the town of Montgomery (as in Old
Dacus) and more specifically in what was called the "Davis Cottage" existing
today. The following letters sent to or received by the Davis family 1861.
"The ladies have been busy the last few days making uniforms, grey trimmed
with yellow, very pretty. Times are hard here, it takes all the money we can
spare for the soldiers. I have raised many chickens this year, a fine garden
and all kinds of vegetables. (1862) "Well how do you get on making cloth? I
have made ninety yards and have another piece ready to weave. Plain white
cloth is selling for fifty to sixty cents a yard and calico at twenty five
to thirty cents a yard. I bought several calico dresses but have nowhere to
go. No preaching for several months. I made a nice hat, dyed it black, out
of wheat straw. I made Mr. Davis some shirts. (Reader do you noticed she
referred to her husband as Mr. Davis? That was the custom of that day and
time). 1863 Letter to Betty Davis from Fairfield, Texas, "We are all busy
here, spinning some dresses, as we have to make our own clothes here. I
would like to know what you do for cotton cards down there. They are very
scarce up here and very high. Everything in the provision line is so high.
Bacon is fifty cents a pound, corn two dollars a bushel. Neighboring
counties have a few written accounts telling how the old-fashioned spinning
wheel, loom and knitting needles were brought out by the women who worked
busily through the day and far into the night to supply the soldiers and the
dependent member at home needed clothing. For medicine we used barks, roots
and herbs. For soda we burned corncobs and used the ashes. For coffee there
were various substitutes such as parched sweet potatoes, rye and okra beans.
Dry goods were found in very small amounts. Calico of good quality cost
fifty dollars a yard, Confederate money." Jo Ella Powell Exley wrote the
above story and she and Mathilda Warner wrote this addition for the book
"Texas Tears and Texas Sunshine"; "Getting supplies was always a problem, we
couldn’t get coffee at all and that was a big problem in the German
household. We roasted rye and wheat. Roasted corn didn’t taste like coffee.
We made our own soap from fat rendered from the hog and ashes cleaned out of
the fireplace." This story will continue next week.
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Old Dacus, Chapter 13
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This chapter is to continue the struggles of
the households of the citizens during the Civil War. An account of how the
women made their soap tells using their homemade ash hopper letting water
drip over the ashes and the result was lye. ‘The test of the strength of lye
was it had to float an egg. If the egg sank, it was weak. We made clothes
out of the kind of cloth that made overalls. Two widths made a skirt. We had
a calico dress for nice and two dresses of heavy cloth. Our stocking were
made from thread spun on wheels brought from Germany, then knitted. If we
had shoes, which was seldom, they were made at home.’ Eudora Moore says
"father bought a side of tanned leather for our shoe soles, the uppers made
of a heavy black material from an old cloak."
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My own great grandfather established a tannery
just East of Montgomery in 1843. He built it on Martin Creek, where the
present day highway 105 and road join, high upon that hill where he lays
buried. He operated that tannery until forced out of business from lack of
supplies, mostly lack of salt used to tan hides.
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To continue the Moore story she says, "we made
pants out of a parlor table cover of wool, dyed with pomegranate juice. Hats
were made of corn shucks or palmetto. We used pomegranate juice or green
pecan hulls to make dye. Rebecca Adams says ‘We need wool cards but there is
none in the county.’ I have nearly ruined the cotton cards trying card wool
making the teeth straighten, we are behind on weaving, but hate to ruin my
cotton cards. I traded one hundred bushels of corn for three hundred pounds
of sugar, but had to give twenty one dollars for a coffee pot and four tin
cups. Mr. Caldwell wants one hundred dollars for a calico dress." 1861 Mrs.
E. Jane Moore writes; "The drought and grasshoppers destroyed our
vegetables, corn and wheat, our dependence for our life gone. Our supplies
of food and clothing are all gone. We had cows and so had milk, butter and
beef and wool from our sheep, but no spinning wheels and wool cards. Our men
began to make looms, wheels and cards and I set in to make our clothes. I
made jeans, blankets, comforts, socks, flannel quilts, sheets, bolsters,
pillowcases, towels stockings and linsey clothes for the women. Our shoes
were made from Buckskin and our hats were made from rabbit, fox or wildcat
skins or woven from straw. We knitted or sewed at night, using our homemade
tallow candles for light. We suffered from lack of bread, our diet lacked
coffee, tea, pepper, spices or salt. I made jeans suit for my husband and a
good warm suit for my oldest son who was far away fighting for our beloved
southland!"
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These is no doubt whatsoever that the majority
of the new settlers moving into Texas and certainly those who landed in
Montgomery, Dobbin, Old Dacus and new Dacus areas worked hard to have
schools and churches available for every citizen. The town of Montgomery was
beginning to grow and in 1837, Dr. E.J. Arnold, the builder and occupant of
our present day City Hall building and the Peel family forefather, along
with C.J. Clepper, bought a lot and gave it to the town for use by the
Masonic Lodge and a public school. In 1848 a charter was granted, a building
was constructed and the legislature incorporated an academy in Montgomery.
That 1848 building was replaced in 1895 in the same location. The building
stood about where the Liberty Street and Hwy 105 join. I am proud to say
that I started to school on that building in 1924. School was held on the
first floor and the Lodge held their meeting on the top story.
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I read in the Southwestern Quarterly, printed
in 1946 that the Masonic Grand Lodge of Texas held their tenth annual
meeting in Houston in 1847. The resolution to devote ten percent of their
revenue to education was agreed upon. Prior to that meeting and prior to
1848 perhaps the first Masonic school in Texas was that fostered by Orphans
Friends Lodge No. 17 at Fanthorpe, Grimes County. That town is known today
as Anderson.
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Old Dacus, Chapter 14
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Despite the terrible hardships, tragic deaths,
disease, hunger, Indians, war and despair, the parent either alone or
together tried hard to give their children at least a tiny bit of schooling.
Some of the accounts of how they tried can be found in the diaries and
stories written before, during and after the Civil War and during the agony
of reconstruction. One of the early schools in Montgomery was the Jones
Academy, the teacher being L. S. Jones which closed during the Civil War.
The diary of Delia Rose Harris tells how her family moved to Columbus, Texas
in 1833 and her family joined in the "Run-away-Scrape". Returning to their
home " her father left hunting work and in 1838 a man came to our house
trying to find a place to teach school, only long enough to get the money to
return to the U.S. he offered to teach us three children for room and
board". In 1823- Mary Rabb says, "I left Jonesboro, Arkansas for Texas,
traveling with sixteen or eighteen cattle, that being two cows and two ox
and three tolerably large ones that would make oxen. We traveled about a
hundred miles and our cattle got sick and we had to stop driving them. We
finally got home and when our uncle got there with the cattle there were
only eight or nine head the "Mureen" had left. Samuel Burch built a tiny
school house where he hired tutors for his and his neighbor’s children as
his father had done before him. Ann Coleman tells of coming to Brazoria in
1832. Her father had already come there to serve the Bailey family as tutor
for the children, arriving there from England before 1832. Amelia Beck tells
of leaving home at sixteen to teach at a boarding school. Fanny Beck says
that from the time they arrived in Texas in 1850 until they left in 1863,
their greatest fear was the Indians.
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In our story of Old Dacus and bethel, there is
much evidence that there were schools, both in Dacus and Bethel. Written
proof that the Bethel Cemetery shared a fence with the Bethel Church-school
house. This combination church/schoolhouse at Bethel was later moved a short
way south of the Bethel cemetery on land owned by the Holmes family. There
is also evidence of a school at or near Dacus because the County Records
show "Mr. Uzzell is appointed to hold an election in the building where Mr.
Kenny teaches." The Galveston Daily Advisor ran an ad in 1842 for a teacher
for an English and classical school near Montgomery in the Landrum
neighborhood. In connecting this to Old Dacus, we find William Landrum with
his Mexican Land Grant being a citizen living near Old Dacus and being a
devout Baptist amidst a great many devout Baptists such as the Wheeler’s,
Lowery’s, Daniels’ and the large Uzzell family and supported by the fact
that H.P. Fullenwider was hired as the teacher and that teacher Fullenwider
was in Montgomery before 1840, we put the school on William Landrum’s
plantation. Now read this and think about this further proof. In the book "A
Texan in Search of a Fight, C.S.A." the source of information in the book
came from John C West of Hoods Brigade who tells of the Trinity River
Classical School. West was admitted to the bar in the early 1850's, but
moved to Waco in 1855 when he was appointed headmaster of the Waco and
Trinity Classical School, this Baptist Institution was one of the finest
educational facilities in Texas and one of the forerunners of our modern
Baylor University. It was from this Waco Classical School that H.P.
Fullenwider was hired to teach in the William Landrum home/school before
1860.
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| The huge Gay Plantation joined the Landrum land
and the gay and Landrum family also became joined by marriage. |
A Classical School means; a work, especially in
Literature and art of the highest and of acknowledged excellence. Relating
to the classes of the Roman people, hence the highest rank, the classics,
Greek and Latin works or authors." The William Landrum Classical School via
Waco, via soldier, lawyer West and thus teacher Fullenwider, the school
required Greek and Latin for the children of Old Dacus.
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There are still descendants living of the
Landrum and Gay families in or near Montgomery.
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Old Dacus, Chapter 15
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While trying to bring conclusion the struggle
our forefathers had, to provide education for their children, mention must
be made of the popular and highly acclaimed Markey’s Seminar at
Plantersville. This was a classical school and offered Greek, Latin, French,
geometry, syntax, trigonometry, algebra, orthography and natural philosophy.
The sessions lasted four months. It is not known when the Landrum’s
Top-of-the-line school ended, but perhaps during the Civil War. The soldier
West, acting as headmaster of the parent school at Waco, was the man who
would have sent Fullenwider to William Landrum at Dacus. The advice sent
along via the teacher soldier West placed and directed to the pupils who
studied under these teachers was "Study hard and get your lessons well, for
an educated man can make a better soldier, a better ditch-digger and a more
perfect gentleman than an uneducated one." And so in conclusion about
schooling, tiny, long forgotten, even denial of its very existence, Old
Dacus may have completely overshadowed big, fine, fast growing Montgomery.
What with its fancy classical school, its race track, its own Don’t-need-you
Montgomery post office soon to come, its center for very important political
meetings at the Bethel Church, its little wonder that the Old Dacus-Bethel
community played second fiddle to none.
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There are still descendants of the William
Landrum settler of 1831, descendants of the Gay neighbor and still
descendants of the Gay-Landrum marriage calling still living in the Golden
Triangle area. Anna Landrum Davis Weisinger, a wonderful historian in her
own right. Perpetuating the lifestyle laid out for his family to follow,
there is Landrum Gay still living on Gay Plantation land, still farming and
ranching. As was true of all Gay and Landrum descendants, these several
generations later families pursued and worked hard in all education
endeavors. They have not dropped the ball. (Since this part of the Dacus
story was written, Landrum Gay, a dedicated church member who practiced his
religion in life had moved on to the next level of mans existence, enjoying
its heavenly rewards). The school census of 1854 shows the names of Old
Dacus residents. There is Elisha Uzzell, William S. Taylor, and Allen
Lowery, Uzzell having three school age children, H. Mitchell with three, G.M.
Kinney two, Major Uzzell three, G. Dean four, Jos. Heflin three. In 1855,
the parents with school age children were Broomfield, Talley, Welch,
Gilmore, Rogers, and the Uzzell brothers. Other names who played a large
part in the growth and life in Old Dacus that are named in the 1860 census
are J.G. Cobb, M.E. Fralick, R.F. Oliver, T.J. Welch, E.C. Uzzell and W.S.
Taylor. In 1870 we add the names Heaton, James Steed, Hannah Nugent, W.W.
Forrest, J.B. King and James Jones.
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In an account of life in Montgomery, Linnie
Gilmore Bradley, daughter of Thomas Gilmore who came to Texas 1845, Linnie
tells of her life after she had to leave her parents home near Longstreet,
when she was ten years old she became an orphan and was sent to live with
her Aunt Nancy Gilmore Gay. The Gay farm and called Gay’s Grove, was nearer
to Old Dacus, but the only post office at that time was in Montgomery. She
tells of dancing lessons learning the Square dance, the Virginia Reel, Heel
and Toe Polka, the Waltz and Mazurka. Linnie remembered a big barbecue in
Montgomery on July 4th, either in 1857 or 1858, when Sam Houston made a
speech in which he kept saying "Stick to the Union, Stick to the Union."
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In the "New" Montgomery County designated "New"
as opposed to "Old" when Montgomery County was also a part of Walker and
Grimes County. Commissioners Court in an 1854 session ordered that the
county be divided into districts to establish public schools. We then must
suppose that all schools before 1854 were established and supported by the
community because the Court ordered taxes imposed and collected in 1854.
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Old Dacus, Chapter 16
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The beginning of our present day school system
probably began in 1854 when Montgomery County being a "new" county acting
only for itself, established a school tax to support public schools. The
county was ordered to establish school districts, at that time through
number seven. Our subject areas Old Dacus and Bethel were in District Three,
there was a special election in 1854 to elect Trustees. Taken from the
school news printed in the Conroe Courier in 1930, the article says, "In
1836 the beginning practice of settlers to educate their children where the
distance from the homes was too great to travel back and forth each day, was
to hire a teacher in some ones home near the greater number of pupils.
Sometimes the families took turns boarding the teachers. Also there was an
occasional home owner who felt qualified to teach and thus opened their
homes to day students or maybe one or two boarders." Three such boarders I
know of were Linnie Gilmore who attended Gilmore School northwest of Old
Dacus, Mollie Ferguson of Mt. Pleasant who boarded at the G. M. Daniel home
and attended Hopewell School at Old Dacus. Lastly, Morgan Price, west of
Montgomery who boarded in the home of Texanna Snow in the town of
Montgomery.
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In the special election ordered by
Commissioners Court in a special term in April 1854, "Be it remembered on
this 24th day of April, 1854, came to be acted upon the division of this
Montgomery County into districts." Here the metes and bounds of the
Districts one through seven are described and the court ordered an election
to be held in District Three, Old Dacus-Bethel in May 1854. "The election
will be held at the schoolhouse in which Mr. Knight teaches school." Elisha
Uzzell was appointed by the Chief Justice to hold the election and since we
have established with certainty where the Uzzell homestead was, we assume
that school district number three included Old Dacus in the Bethel district.
The State Census shows then the first distribution of school funds was made
in 1854-1855 and the whopping sum was sixty-two cents per capita. Now
compare those school days to that of today and it seems hard to believe. The
total of the children the parents listed was nineteen in District Three as
being of school age. On the 18th of November 1856 the court ordered the
collection of funds to support the school. Prior to the court order for a
public school system, the practice was that whenever someone who thought
they were qualified to teach or hold a school they prepared a place in their
home or building adjoining their home and set up a school. In the "History
of Grimes County", David Thomas Jones and Newton Jones tell how it was done.
They are descended from Thomas Gilmore who built a house on the edge of
Grimes County called the Gilmore School and until a better building for the
church was obtained, the Gilmore School was also used as a church. This was
a common practice and was the way the Bethel Church-School was conducted.
The Jones brothers remember "the children studied by candlelight or oil
lamps and misbehavior at school meant two whippings. One at school and one
at home." In the same "Grimes County History", Azalene McDonald Shead, tells
of her family moving to Ulmer, Texas, "Just up the road a’piece of "New"
Dacus". (Ulmers Switch was the location of a large community founded on
large farms and a huge sawmill). Mrs. Shead tells, "at the age of sixteen,
after completing the seventh grade. I passed the County Certification tests
for teaching and taught one year at Pine Grove School at Applonia with Miss
Eva Hill. The pay was $40 a month. Twelve dollars and fifty cents of this
went for room and board."
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While attending the Gilmore School, Linnie
Gilmore tells of sitting on rough wood "slabs" on legs, using chalk on
slates, studying reading, writing and spelling, all three subjects from one
book. Later she had the now famous Blueback Speller, and the dictionary was
also used as a schoolbook! As opposed to the unreadable writing of today,
handwriting in that period of time was beautiful.
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Old Dacus, Chapter 17
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Almost without exception, stories told by
immigrants from other states, say schools and schooling stopped during the
Civil War, and especially during the terrible reconstruction period. We know
that George Daniel, forefather of one of our Texas Governors, came to the
Old Dacus area about 1873. Although court records show that school districts
were put into place and businesses were taxed for schools in 1854. And we
know there was a community school in the Bethel area, I have not been able
to prove a school in Old Dacus, but do have two clues. One is the story of
the Nellie B. Ward Weisinger family of the Mt. Pleasant community, a few
miles east of Old Dacus as the crow flies. Old Dacus had a large group of
settlers by the time Mollie Ward was born in 1873. Old Dacus was beginning
to pass Bethel in population by that time, but Bethel still had the only
church and school that we have proof of for sure. But then we have the
Mollie Ward story, "I attended Hopewell School where Archie Casburn’s home
is now located (In explanation of this statement, Archie and Joyce Casburn
lived in 1981 on almost the exact location of the future Goodin store and
future Dacus Post Office, also very near the George Daniel homestead)she
says; and boarded with the Reverend George Daniel family." While I branch
off on related subject matter, don’t forget to remember the Molly Ward story
of Hopewell School and George Daniel.
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From W. N. Martin’s "A History of
Montgomery"; There were 42 members of Austin’s Colonies that got land
from the Mexican Government; William Landrum and Zachariah
Landrum-1831-William Landrum wife, Nancy Gilmore Landrum, William Landrum
and wife’s father were veterans of the American Revolution. William Landrum
and wife Nancy Gilmore Landrum gave their daughter Mary in marriage to G.B.
Gay of Gays Grove, a neighboring plantation. Another daughter Melissa,
married Ilia Davis, the grandfather of Anna Davis Weisinger, Montgomery’s
leading lady. Masonic Lodge records of 1840 lists William Landrum as owning
1-PALL-LAND T38000-the other property-3SL-35CATTLE-1WOODCK. I don’t know how
to read the above except perhaps the 3SL means three slaves. It also lists
the William Landrum survey in the Old Dacus area. In pre-Civil War days Gays
Grove in the Old Dacus area had many slaves. There were at least twelve
families of black people living in the Old Dacus-Bethel area in 1880 as
found in the Montgomery County Library records. They were: R. Thompson and
wife Lu, Henry English and wife Jane,son Henry and grandson Andrew. Jim
Bailey and wife Amy, daughters Lulu, Dinah and Ann, Viney Sites and
daughters Ann, Bell and Lora; Jeff Jefferson and wife Sue, and daughter
Ella; R. Williams, Kit Jefferson; Pete Jackson and wife Lara; Brother
Richard and sister Mollie; Dick Hughes and wife Rachel and daughters Rachel,
May and Mollie and son Dick. Boarders were; J and Hugh Hamilton; M.
Pinchback, H. Williams and wife Fan and two daughters Gus and Mag, two sons
Sean and Lon. (1900 Census) Rob Cook and wife Lee; Tony Davis and wife
Pearl; Henry Hutch and wife Carrine and son Erwin; Ben Linton and wife
Mollie and sons, Mark, Prince and Charles, daughter Eva; George Jackson and
wife Leona and sons General, Ardell, Ward and Willie, daughter Rhody.
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There is no doubt these were descendants of
slaves brought to the Old Dacus-Bethel area by the first settlers coming
from many different states East of the Mississippi. In the book "The Cotton
Kingdom" by Frederick Law Olmstead, I found this item, In the period from
1852 to 1860, food for slaves and tenant farmers was figured to be $7.50 a
year. Citizens without means to build homes and slaves of wealthy land
owners went out into the swamps and forests to make "Boards" which meant
slabs or planks which were hewed out with an axe, the only instrument
available. Slaves were only sent to make boards on Sunday the only day off
from the farm work.
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Next week back to the new clue which I hope
will finally prove there was a school in Old Dacus known as the George
Daniel Hopewell School.
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Old Dacus, Chapter 18
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Reliable information about the Old Dacus-Bethel
area can be gotten from two old-timers still living in that area. One is
S.T. (Bud) Binford born and raised there, as was C.L. Martin, both still
living there. In my hopes of proving that Old Dacus had a school as well as
Bethel I had originally had only two clues, one was Molly Ward Ferguson’s
story and later on there will be the story of George Daniel, while applying
for the establishment of a Post Office at Old Dacus, gave his address as
George Daniel, Hopewell, Montgomery County, Texas. Now Paul Martin and his
father C.L. Martin always working found another clue. Questioning Bud
Binford about his parents’ schooling, they found that Bud’s mother, Della
Heaton Binford was raised within sight of the Bethel Church and school. She
got all of her schooling at both the First Bethel church school which
adjoined the Bethel cemetery or in the second Bethel school location a
little further down the road on the Holmes land. Bud’s father, Bill Binford
was raised at Old Dacus, some three miles south of Bethel, Bud’s family land
was in sight of the Goodin store which housed the Old Dacus Post Office. To
add to all of this exciting disclosure, Bill Binford attended a school, but
he never went to the Bethel school where his wife went. To add all this up,
we know Bill Binford went to school, we know he lived across the road from
what George Daniel gives as his address and we know his family lived close
by George Daniel. Now add the Molly Ward story and we are convinced there
was a Hopewell school at Old Dacus.
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In reading and writing about the first settlers
to Texas it would be a hard call to say whether school or church came first
to many of the people moving in. One of the accounts of a visitor to our
subject area I found in a book titled "Daniel Lipscomb, a Journalist in
Texas, 1872, Gospel Minister and Guiding Light to Church of Christ
Congregations". He wrote and spoke to a vast readership and audience. He
came from Tennessee to Texas, not to settle but to observe. In 1872,
Lipscomb paid a visit to Texas still a frontier land, lacking many things,
but determined to gather in small congregations to spread and strengthen
their Christian beliefs. This Texas visit is a true account of Texas
following the Civil War. In the story of the birth, growth and death of the
community of Old Dacus, there were many people who could make with their own
hands and limited tools, most of the things they needed to farm, own cattle,
hogs and fowl and to raise their families. Lipscomb seconds this in his
Texas visit saying "Each settler seemed to be his own Jack-of-all-trades and
man-of-all-work falling back on their own resources for everything they
needed," Reverend Lipscomb noted that Texans had a habit of carrying and
using pistols and not uncommonly took the law into their own hands. This was
probably true of our Dacus-Bethel area according to County Court records.
I’m sure Lipscomb description of the people of the communities going to
church is exactly the was our Old Dacus-Bethel people went to church in
1872. Lipscomb says, "It’s all very interesting to watch the buggies,
carriages and wagons winding their way from different directions going to
the meeting house. It was the fashion to go to church in a wagon, six, eight
or more people in each, seated in chairs. Although we do not know of a
building used only for church, Sunday school or school in the Old Dacus
area, there certainly were meetings held in private homes. In a community
that was home to such varied preachers and laymen such as Lowery, Wheeler,
Daniel, Welch and Uzzell. I am certain as least prayer meetings and Sunday
Schools were held. Preacher Lipscomb began one of his Texas trips on July
11, 1872 taking the Great Northern train to Willis, he traveled 10 miles
further to Montgomery "A town of five or six hundred inhabitants with the
finest crops of cotton and corn. Montgomery (and certainly our Dacus and
Bethel area ) has land out of town priced at fourteen dollars an acre, and
has berries, peaches, apples, pears and lots of milk and butter. Montgomery
and surrounding areas grow an unbelievable number of insects such as
mosquitoes, flies, gnats, ticks and fleas being the worst."
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Old Dacus, Chapter 19
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In the last chapter David Lipscomb, a Church of
Christ minister and visitor to Montgomery and I believe Bethel gave a list
of some of the good things and some of the bad in our area. The last part of
his list of bad things ended with "a sly dig at religion other than his
own," when he stated that all the insects we had, he thought the worst was
the fleas, he added, "I have heard of the fleas breaking up a Methodist
meeting, but I suppose it was before they got up a full head of steam,
otherwise even the fleas could not have put out the fire." Other chapters in
his book are "At Montgomery there is a small lifeless body of disciples, we
say this of them as a body, though there are exceptions, especially there
are some true and earnest sisters." Search of the records show that several
men of the Dacus-Bethel area were in the committee that began the Baptist
Church in Montgomery in 1850. The motion to establish the Baptist Church in
the town of Montgomery was made by Elisha Uzzell, one of the earliest
homesteaders in Old Dacus. Others of Old Dacus attending the church
organization were R.F. Oliver, Allen Lowery and Burrell Anders. The true and
earnest sisters that Lipscomb wrote of were Martha Oliver, Lydia Uzzell and
Phoebe Rigsby. The lady that never let the beginning Baptist Church die at
that time was a Mrs. Simonton of Montgomery. Lipscomb says "There are two
brethren very capable of teaching and who have done much good in former
years. Brethren Linton and E.C. Chambers. They have allowed their minds to
be taken up with other things to the loss of interest in church. There are
accounts of bear hunting, horse racing, politics, gambling, and more saloons
than any other business. The Baptist offered me the use of their house, that
of the brethren, not being well seated in which we preached several
discoveries of the Church of Christ to small audiences."
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Next comes the most interesting chapter of
Reverend Lipscomb trip. "We went by private conveyance six miles out (the
exact distance of Old Dacus) to a congregation called Bethany. We preached
twice here to an interested congregation of young people. This group was
built up chiefly through the labor of Brother Green Ferguson. The brethren
gave us a good list of subscribers to the ‘Gospel Advocate’, the religious
journal of the Church of Christ. Since the distance from Montgomery to
Bethel is six miles and since the Ferguson family moved to Montgomery from
Bethel and since one of the Ferguson boys, Everett married a Bethel girl,
last name Curling and since the Ferguson-Curling couple had a son who became
a Church of Christ preacher and twice preached in Montgomery and had his
picture hanging on the wall of the Baptist Church in Montgomery." I feel all
of that should prove Lipscomb was at the Bethel Church.
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There was a great many huge impact happenings
going on in our subject area at the time of Reverend Lipscomb’s trip to
Montgomery and Bethel, a settler in the Old Dacus area named Warren Goodin
bought his land there in 1838. Another Goodin, John L bought there in 1853.
I found no information about either of these men, but they were probably the
reason another Goodin, named James L arrived in Old Dacus in 1872 from
Louisiana with his two sons Jimmy and Willie and bought land in Old Dacus.
James had dissolved his marriage in Louisiana, leaving two daughters,
Marvetta Rudd and Mrs. Elizabeth Holt with their mother. The Goodin family
of Old Dacus left the most telling account of the settlement there through
the descendants living today and their wonderful stories are ours to read.
Paul Jernigan and Verna Johnson of Houston, grandchildren of James L. Goodin
have given us much history. James Goodin’s land is just a "whoop and a
holler" north of the land settled by the Uzzell brothers, Elisha and Major
Uzzell. In that time, 1832, through 1880 maybe longer the road was known as
the Montgomery-Anderson Road. One of James’ sons, J.L. Goodin lived within
the memory of some us today. He worked as a clerk in the "Pet" and Lester
Peel store in Montgomery. James Goodin and his wife E.E.A. Goodin and
children created holdings in Old Dacus that would be called a mall today.
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Old Dacus 1872, Chapter 20
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| James L. Goodin and his two sons arrived in Old
Dacus around 1872 about the time Geo Daniel was establishing his home and
family in the same area. Records show that James Goodin married a lady named
Moore, a descendant of large land holdings in that area. This lady had a
mind of her own and signed her name all her life as E. Eddings Ann Moore.
Her grandchildren have no explanation of why she always included the whole
string of names. No one knows what the first single letter E stands for. All
records of the family were lost when their beautiful stand-out home
established by James Goodin and wife E. Eddings Ann Moore Goodin, burned to
the ground. |
Immediately after their marriage James set
about to build a business complete with every facility to serve the farming
and timber harvesting community needs. He built in time, a store, grist
mill, tin shop, blacksmith shop, cotton gin and a sawmill. It seems
reasonable to believe that the Goodin-Daniel families became friends and
perhaps even business partners. Meanwhile E. Eddings Ann Moore Goodin began
building the beautiful home they lived in and establishing garden, both
flowers and vegetables. Their hospitality was extended to everyone and
widely known and praised. The huge curbed well of cold, sweet water was on
the side of the road in front of the store and every person was welcome to
use the water. Talk of this spring fed well of water at the Goodin store is
still repeated today, one hundred and thirty years later. The curbed well
was still in place by the side of the road until a few years ago. When the
widening and paving of FM 1097 W was scheduled to obliterate the well.
Archie and Joyce Casburn objected to the destruction of the community land
mark. Archie was one of the many old settler descendants living on the very
location of the James Goodin various business sites and he and Joyce
insisted that some recognition of the life giving well of water be made and
their request was honored. In talking with Joyce Casburn, she vaguely
remembers a visit by a lady years ago who came to her house and said she
once lived there and remembered the well and the crepe myrtle trees. Joyce
did not remember if the lady said she was one of James Goodin’s daughter who
was left behind when he came from Louisiana or if she was a daughter by E.
Eddings Ann.
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The insistence by James Goodin’s to always sign
all the initials caused quite a few mix-ups, but she prevailed for all the
life we know of her. She was postmistress for the Old Dacus post office, but
twice at different times and one time the Postmaster General thought she was
a man mistaking Eddings as Edward. There is evidence of a family named
Eddings and a family named Moore, but still no one knows what the E. In her
name meant.
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From 1872, James Goodin and his two sons began
building their huge plantation style operation and certainly during that
time they were joined in many parts of it, by the George Daniel family.
Records prove that the Daniel family were of the same metal hands-on typed,
determined to promote Church and school affairs in the fast growing
community. Recovery from the horrors and subsequent poverty slowed or
stopped altogether the desired business and social progress.
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| By 1885 though the Goodin enterprise was huge
including his son Willie’s sawmill, adjoining his dad’s property. It is
apparent that George Daniel, the father of ten children, born in that
community taking note of the increasing number of settlers moving in,
realized the trials of depending on the town of Montgomery for some of their
vital needs. One of the most desired benefits the community wanted was
regular delivery of their mail. Although Montgomery was only six miles
southeast, the many streams during the cold winters and spring run-offs
including Uzzell Brand and Town Creek, caused the mail to be delayed
sometimes a week at a time. Since all the settlers left family and loved
ones behind when coming to Old Dacus, this was the need felt most deeply.
This is the point at which George Daniels decided he would add one more
contribution to his community and friends. |
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Old Dacus 1872, Chapter 21
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The desire and need for regular mail delivery
to the growing settlement known as Bethel and the rapidly growing Goodin
Store enterprise was the first prompting for George Daniel to take action to
ask for a permit to establish a post office in the Goodin Store. I feel sure
that the death of the regular mail carrier from Montgomery to Bethel in an
accident caused by a run-away team, while making a delivery helped to make
up Daniel’s mind to act on the application.
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Mr. Thomas a member of one of the first
settlers was killed while trying to cross Town Creek, just north of
Montgomery is believed to be the true account of his death.
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George Daniel made the application to the
Postmaster General in Washington, D.C. Although Daniel does not show on this
application. The exact location where the Post office would be housed, we
know it was planned to be in James Goodin’s store. Also in the Daniel’s
application he boldly states that E.E.A. Goodin is the proposed postmaster,
who we now know was Mrs. E.E. Ann Moore Goodin, or Mrs. James Goodin. It is
obvious in further records that the Postmaster General always thought he was
hiring a man! Also in the application he proposed the name Dacus for the new
post office. I have not been able to prove why Daniels chose this name, but
many records exist that show J.B. Dacus, a member of a very prominent
Montgomery family had many and varied business interests in and around
Montgomery. Mr. Dacus took a great deal of interest in the social, economic
and political activities in the town and county of Montgomery. Daniel’s
application suggesting the name Dacus may have been a dent of a common
business relationship, prompting Daniel to name the growing community center
after a friend.
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There is a record of a business agreement
between J.B. Dacus and L.E. Dunn, these two men were related and the
partnership applied to a tract of land in the newly named Dacus area, where
Dacus is to cultivate a crop growing on Dacus owned land in a manner for the
best interest in both parties. Dunn is to pay half of the hire of three
hands for five months beginning Jan. 1st, 1875. When the hands are idle,
Dacus may use them to clear land. Thus, by this record we can deduce that
Dacus was involved in the Goodin store area several years before Daniel
obtained the Post office permit and there was in all probability both a
business and social connection between J.B. Dacus and George Daniel, hence
the honor of the name for the important addition to the new community.
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The value of the proposal for a post office in
the Goodin Store could not be estimated. All roads of that period were a
problem. Each land owner that had a road or part of a road crossing his
property by common agreement was expected to keep that section of road
repaired. Spring branches and water run-off, creeks that overflowed their
banks made high water a problem both winter and summer. Black land made
bogging down mud for the horse or the team of oxen and dry deep sand also
created problems for the ox, mule or horse used to pull the wagons or
buggies. There is no record where the mail was delivered by Mr. Thomas
before the post office was established in Old Dacus, 1888, but we know there
was a designated mail drop a few miles north of the Bethel Church named "Guyler".
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| I was told of this mail drop along F.M. 149 by
a wonderful lady, Mrs. Reed, who was raised a few miles north of the Bethel
Church-Schoolhouse, although Guyler was perhaps four or five miles north of
Old Dacus, about the same distance away as Montgomery, the route to Guyler
may have had less bad weather hazards. Mrs. Reed said the mail route was
called the "Star Route" and included the Longstreet postoffice which lay
along the roads that eventually ended at Anderson, Texas. |
Since the Dacus post office was not a reality
until 1888, story of the progress of the Goodin empire and the people who
made it so, should be told first since the James Goodin, his family and the
first settlers who came before him and those who followed created and made
the Old Dacus community a "self-made man" community long before Daniel added
to its comfort and convenience. Not withstanding the bankruptcy at the end
of the Civil War, James Goodin and fellow citizens starting with the
Goodin’s arrival in the area circa 1873, built an unbelievable empire by
1888.
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Old Dacus 1872, Chapter 22
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As James Goodin and his sons began to make
their place a soure for all the needs of his family, friends and neighbors.
I think the proper telling of his rapid climb to be the leading citizen of
Old Dacus should be told by their great grandchildren, Verna Johnson and
Paul Jernagin of Houston and his neighbor and good friend, Della Binford of
Bethel. The following is the Lou Eddie Goodin Jernigan story.
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James L. Goodin was born on Aug. 17, 1835 in
Louisiana. He and his two sons, James, Jr., "Jimmie" born Aug. 29, 1854 and
W.E. "Willie" (later known as W.L.) Came to Texas. Records show that James
bought some land in Old Dacus in 1872. Earlier records reveal that Warren
Goodin bought land there in 1838 and John L. Goodin bought land in 1853. No
doubt there is a relationship between these Goodins, perhaps influencing
James to come to Texas. James had dissolved his marriage in Louisiana
leaving two daughters, Marvetta Rudd and Mrs. Elizabeth Holt with their
mother. Around 1872, James married E. Eddings Ann Moore who was born in
Alabama on Dec. 13, 1844. Her family were early settlers in the Old Dacus
area. She was a half sister to David and Willis Scheffer.
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James and his wife accumulated quite a bit of
property. They built a showplace home, well known for the beautiful flower
gardens and good water available to the public. It was located on 177 acres
out of the William Steward Survey on the west side of the public road, they
built and operated a general store, Post Office, a tin shop, blacksmith
shop, cotton gin and gristmill. They also built a sawmill on adjoining
property, which belonged to Willie. James and E. Eddings had three children,
Carrie, who died as a small child, Lou Eddie, born Sept. 2, 1874 and John
Louis born a few years later. Willie married Lizzie Steed and had three
children: Foye, Glynn and Margaret. They moved to Houston between 1910 and
1920. Jimmy married Emily Pittman. They had seven children: Carrie, Flora,
Clara, Herman, Ruth, Lewis and Sadie. They moved to Bedias in 1903 and then
to Houston in 1919, with some of the children settling elsewhere. Jimmie
died Sept. 20, 1939. Emily, who was born Mar. 22, 1864, died July 5, 1962.
John Louis married and had one daughter who moved to Houston. Lou Eddie
married on Nov. 9, 1903 to Willis Wilkerson Jernigan who was born Sept. 24,
1879 in Overton, TX. Willis was the step-son of E.E. Ann Goodin’s sister.
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Old Dacus 1872, Chapter 23
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When Lou Eddie Goodin Jernigan’s father James
Goodin died in 1904, Lou Eddie and husband Willis Jernigan were living in
Fort Worth. Lou Eddie inherited the homestead and the couple moved to Old
Dacus to take over the estate for her mother. The house was large and
beautiful, furnished with the finest of the day. The twenty years they had
spent there were filled with good and bad experiences. They were very active
in Bethel Baptist Church, the school system and many other civic endeavors.
After two crop failures and the home burning to the ground there seemed no
way to make a come-back even though the whole community rallied to supply
them with the necessities until a new home was built. Discouraged, the
family moved to Houston in 1925. Willis Jernigan died in 1953 and Lou Eddie
died in 1955. Both were buried in Bethel Cemetery where all their family
members were buried.
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Lou Eddie’s father James Goodin donated the
land for the Bethel Cemetery. In spite of all their troubles and sorrows
they lived beautiful lives and were respected and loved by all who knew
them.
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Paul and Vera still have a genuine attachment
to the Old Dacus homeplace and wish to submit this history in honor of their
parents and grandparents. A wonderful version of the James and E.E.Ann
Goodin lifestyle is written by Della Heaton Binford born and raised almost
within arms length of the Bethel Church, schoolhouse and cemetery. Only a
beautiful woman, beautiful in both physical and spiritual way, also the
mother of a very large, wonderful family, who loved everything beautiful, as
her letter will show. Her husband Bill Binford was raised about three miles
south of her where the James Goodin family lived and where Old Dacus
officially became Dacus. Both Heaton and Binford descendants still live in
the Bethel and Old Dacus area. Another pioneer resident of Old Dacus who
lives on the old community of Bethel and obituary of Mrs. Lizzie Brister
who’s home was midway between the two communities.
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06-20-1957, Mrs. Lizzie Brister, Montgomery
County’s oldest resident passed away at 2 pm, Thursday at her home on Route
2, Montgomery, near Dacus. Mrs. Brister died in the home where she was born,
one hundred and eight (108) years ago. Her father John Thomas was born and
lived his entire life in the same area. Mrs. Brister, a member of the
Montgomery Baptist Church had been in ill-health for many years and had been
bed-ridden for the past twenty years. (If I remember right, Mrs. Brister
was one of the group of Old Dacus settlers that converged on the town of
Montgomery to help finalize the formation of the Baptist Church in
Montgomery. I am sure she was a charter member there and though she lived
very close to the Bethel Church and was a devout Baptist she did not move
her membership.) Funeral services were held at the graveside in Bethel
Cemetery, near Dacus. Survivors include two daughters Mrs. Pearl Treece,
Conroe and Mrs. Mattie "Ellen" Davis, Montgomery. (Although a Montgomery
address is given, most of Mrs. Brister’s descendants still live in either
Bethel or Old Dacus, but their mailing address’ had been changed from Old
Dacus to Montgomery at the time of her death.) One son, Jack Brister, one
step-son, twenty one grandchildren, thirty one great grandchildren and four
great great grandchildren. Her pallbearers were all from the first settlers
of Old Dacus, close friends and neighbors and like Mrs. Brister have left
many behind still living in that area. The Brister, Casburn, Binford,
Johnson and Oliver families never left home.
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Old Dacus 1872, Chapter 24
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The united citizens of both communities pushed
the Montgomery County School District until the Commissioners Court
recognized the areas as separate. Bethel was called public school district
#12 and Dacus was designated as district #39. The two communities had not
been recognized as separate in 1878 and a list of schools receiving public
school funds show Bethel or rather it is listed as Bethel Church receiving
$68.94 for the school year for 1878. The Montgomery Academy got $59.43
getting less than Bethel Church school proving the efforts of Bethel to be
as "good as anybody". The Willis school got $187.72, the probable reason
that George Daniel and Clinton Nugent moved to Willis around 1895, the given
reason for the move was to give further and better education to their
families.
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By 1885, the Goodin enterprise was huge,
including his son’s sawmill adjoining his dad’s property. It is apparent
that George Daniel noting the growing number of settlers who had gathered in
the twin areas and also very aware of the lack of regular mail delivery from
Montgomery, especially during the long, cold, rainy winters of swollen
creeks and mud, hit an idea to help the whole population. George decided
that there was a great need and desire for better mail service. The next
step up was the creation of their own post office. Being a long time friend
of James Goodin, in all probability a sometimes business partner, what
better place to have the post office than friend Goodin’s store. The store,
already the hub of any business or livelihood matters, this would be just
another event in the everyday life made much easier to take care of on the
trip to the store or gristmill or tin shop or blacksmith shop or sawmill or
just a social visit to Mrs. Goodin. I’m sure Mr. Goodin appreciated George
Daniels efforts to further consolidate his holdings into the complete answer
to all of the needs of the two communities. (According to all of the
research I have proven there was a school at or near Goodin’s Store some
three miles south of the Bethel Church school.) The Ferguson-Ward-Wiesinger
family story in the Montgomery County Historical Book tells us of a young
lady, Mollie Ward born in 1873 in the Mount Pleasant community says; I
attended Hopewell School where Archie Casburn’s home is now located (1981).
This home is also located where Goodin’s store enterprise was located. To
continue the Molly Ward Story; "I attended Hopewell school and boarded with
Reverend George Daniel and family." A bit of interest of the social life of
that time is her telling of being baptized in Caney Creek. This Caney Creek
was a great barrier at times between Dacus and Mt. Pleasant communities and
again became a problem for the two communities and later the Camp Letcher
community. Molly tells of her brave disregard of the risks she took to teach
school at Camp Letcher sawmill community. She tells of her marriage to
Larkin Ferguson who was woods foreman for the Rice-Hardesty Sawmill, located
in the town of Montgomery next to the "New" cemetery, on the Powell family
land and the sawmill boarding house still standing. To stop the side track
history, to get back to the wonderful story of Miss Molly Ward, who became
Mrs Larkin Ferguson, the ceremony was performed by Elder Allen Lowery of Old
Dacus, the son-in-law of F.A.B. Wheeler, the 1825 first settler of Dacus. It
is all adding up to the Uzzell, Nugent, Lowery, Goodin area being known as
the Hopewell School. I only have definite proof of the Goodin store area
being known as a definite, all-of-its-own location and that is the copy of
and granting of George Daniels’ application for a post office in which he
lists his address as Hopewell, Montgomery County, Texas. As a conclusion a
man who became prominent in more ways in one, had a school, boarding house,
gave his address and the name of the school as Hopewell and the post office
application contains affirmation, as required by the post office department
by O.O. Foster, Montgomery, Texas Postmaster, that George Daniel lived at
Hopewell, Texas.
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Old Dacus 1872, Chapter 25
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The following is a copy of the beautifully
written letter of Della Binford to Paul Jernigan, grandson of James and Ann
Goodin. Only Della Heaton Binford cam make us see and almost smell the roses
growing in Old Dacus one hundred and twenty-five years ago.
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"Della Binford Letter"
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Dear friends, Ada and Paul,
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I was sp pleased to have a lovely Christmas
greeting from you. We have, all these many years, counted the Goodins and
later the Jernigans as special friends.
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I can remember so vividly the beautiful, large
farm house where the grandfather and grandmother Goodin lived with their two
children, "Miss Lou Eddie" and John Lewis. They had a "garden", not just a
common "yard" like most families had. A garden with framed beds, filled in
the kind of dirt and whatever else it took for plants to flourish in–all
over that front yard. Mrs. Goodin had a pair of long snippers to cut roses
and other flowers with. My sister and I sometimes went down there with our
cousin, Mattie Scheffer, who was a niece of Mrs. Goodin. Mrs. Goodin ran the
Dacus post office and general store there also. We’d go there for the mail,
to buy different commodities (I don’t believe it was a grocery store). We
usually went on to the house for short visits. I was in my early teens.
"Miss Lou Eddie" was near the age eldest sister. She and her mother had a
row of sweet violets that grew and bloomed each spring alongside the porch
and a yellow rose vine, a Marshall Neil rose (if you please), that
was the largest, sweetest yellow roses anyone could wish for. Honestly, that
yard would make Avon never smell so good! The front gate had an arched
trellis over it. In springtime, it was one cluster of pink roses from top to
bottom. With the long garden shears, Mrs. Goodin would cut and snip off one
for each of us-and was that way with all who shared the beauty of her
flowers with her. I can’t remember what year Miss Lou Eddie and Mr. Jernigan
got married, but of course I remember when they married. She was the type of
young lady who had the grace and poise befitting a princess or queen and hew
"handsome as a Greek god".
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After that, 1910 on Christmas Day, Bill and I
married and we saw one another weekly at our Bethel Church. Then finally,
they were gone on to Houston. "Miss Lou Eddie" wrote to me and I wrote to
her, not too often, but now and then. She got to visit with me once after
she moved, and I visited with her and Mr. Jernigan one day in their Houston
home. Both were in bad health then, but I did love that day.
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I remember no dates, but from my early teens I
do remember so many things, such as the death of Grandfather Goodin who
talked to his wife by slate and pencil mostly. She was very fond of him and
the least thing she’d write on that slate seemed to please him so much. In
some of our visits there, I saw that too! I remember grieving with them when
they lost their eldest and youngest sons. I was home with a house full of
babies then or I would have gladly gone to them.
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After I was about grown and Mr. John Lewis was
a handsome you man, he asked me for a date. I was pleased, but my mom said I
was too young, so I never did get to buggy ride with him.
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Again, in answer to your request, oh yes I
remember so well so many things about their marriage and years before and
after. Anything I can tell you further, I’d be glad to.
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Happy Christmas to all of you. I love every one
of you.
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Della Binford
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Old Dacus 1872, Chapter 26
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When F.A.B. Wheeler decided to make Old Dacus
his home there was no settlement near, no people and many dangers and
obstacles to overcome. He had his family with him and he immediately got
word back to Virginia, his home state that free land was available in his
part of Texas. Settlers from all the states along the way heard and decided
to join Wheeler. One of the newcomers was Allen Lowery. He came with a grant
of land and after serving in the war against Santa Anna, he found, courted
and married Ann, the daughter of F.A.B. Wheeler. Lowery quickly joined his
father-in-law wheels in worship in the Baptist belief, he was very devout in
his religion and was a charter member of the Baptist General Convention
organized in Anderson, Grimes County, Texas in 1848. Allen Lowery and wife,
Ann Wheels had two sons and two daughters the youngest child being a
daughter Sarah Elizabeth, but by later request from "back home" relatives
another name was added she became Sarah Elizabeth Virginia Lowery in honor
of the grandfather Wheels family in Virginia. When Sarah E.V. Lowery was
eleven years old the Civil War began at the same time, 1860, in Floyd County
Georgia, George Mayfield Daniel, a boy of 14 years was baptized in the
Chatahoochie River, Floyd County lay directly in the path Sherman’s target.
Researching the age of sixteen and the Civil War in its third year, George
joined an Alabama regiment and served until the war ended. His mother died
when he was small and his father re-married , a second family of children
hastened the departure of the first set. George, now past eighteen arranged
with several families to come to Texas and had chosen to locate in
Montgomery County. We have to believe they chose Old Dacus as the spot,
because roads, travel and communication were non-existent and because within
the third year of his arrival, he met, courted and married Miss Sarah
Elizabeth Virginia Lowery. George already baptized into the Baptist faith
was an ordained minister by 1873. The ordination sermon delivered by Rev.
McJunkin also served to ordain George’s father-in-law Allen Lowery and
presided in the same manner . When George and Sarah’s fifth child, son Carey
was pronounced an ordained Baptist minister.
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We have many accounts of the life of James
Goodin was creating for himself and family in Old Dacus, but the only true
person-to-person account I could find of the life of George and Sarah Daniel
in their early days in Old Dacus is the family account, "The George Mayfield
Daniel family in Texas" by Mrs. I.H. Devine, she includes a letter from the
minister son Carey serving at times as a Baptist missionary in North China.
It reads; "The following is part of my birthday letter to my beloved good
father, just thirty-five years ago as a farmer-preacher was living in a log
house in the forest of Montgomery County, Texas U.S.A. Seven years he had
lived in this place and four children had come into his home during these
years. By light of a pine knot fire he studied much during the hard yet
happy years in the forest frontier home. God bless him and his companion
with health and enable them by hard work and close living to keep "the wolf"
from the door. The awful war of 1860-1865 had deprived them of an education.
The child that at this time came into their home was the fifth and was
during the coming years by five others. With a liberal heart and an
energetic hand he labored to provide food, shelter and clothing and also
education for his children and at the same time was used of God to supply
spiritual teaching and inspiration to multitudes of people in every
direction. This man was to one of his children a mighty man. He could build
houses, clear forests, assess taxes, run a store, cultivate fields, was a
school trustee and an earnest soul in preaching. He would sometimes punish a
disobedient child but more often was blind to the wrongs or was patient in
reproving with words. George Daniel only went home to Georgia to see his
aged father. He came home to tell of the train how fast it ran and of the
new day and new world outside. No one ever doubted the love of G.M. Daniel
for his family; many times he called the youngest, when guests were present
and proudly announce, ‘this is number ten’ he was proud of his family’s
health. Once when he though he had pneumonia the doctor came and George said
‘this is the first time we ever had a doctor for disease’. All childhood
diseases and malaria, so common were cured by home remedies."
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Old Dacus 1872, Chapter 27
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The Old Dacus story seems to tall in the end
that the two men most important in the story and most influential in the
unity, good will and good spiritual life of the communities was James Goodin
and George Daniel. They both landed in the Bethel-Dacus area about the same
time and there seems to be many small items of news that connect the two men
more ways than we know. George Daniel’s minister son Carey wrote a wonderful
tribute to his father. He also wrote a beautiful letter of love and
appreciation to his mother, and I being a female think her side of the story
in Old Dacus should also be told. George Daniel, no doubt was all and more
than his son gave him credit for, (but wait a minute, he didn’t have ten
children!), he was a father and a good father true enough but being the
mother of ten children is another story.
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I’m going to print this son’s view of his
mother here just because I think it’s fair.
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Son Carey says; " Someone said that behind
every good man there is a good woman" surely even George Daniel could not
have raised ten independent, self-supporting sons and daughters without the
help of a faithful wife, small in body, powerful in achievement, genuinely
refine woman, meticulous in her manner of eating, careful in speech and
carefully courteous in the manner of her day. She addressed her husband as
"Mr. Daniel" to her children she referred to him as "Your Father" or "Your
Pa".
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In the yard she made her laundry soap in a
large iron kettle. In the Fall this kettle was used to heat water to scald
the dead hog to easily scrape off its hair. The meat was used to make the
most delicious sausage, hand ground, seasoned, packed in cloth tubes, hung
from rafters to smoke and cure. She had spare ribs, head cheese, hams and
bacon. She canned fruits and vegetables in their season’s. The sewing and
the mending was done by hand (remember there were ten children!). Carey
writes; "Just thirty-five years ago today there lived a little woman in a
log house on the banks of a large creek. The place was hid away in the
forest’s of Montgomery County, Texas, a.k.a. Old Dacus. This little woman
was a native of the frontier. She had seen the wild animals in plenty, roam
about the forest and her cabin. She had just reached young womanhood when a
young man caught her fancy and her heart. She was a five foot dainty blond,
he was of medium height and brunette. Soon she became the wife of a poor
homeless farmer. Soon her husband felt it was his duty to preach. These were
not idle years for this good woman. She was the mother of ten children."
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"Radways, Ready, Relief" and "peach-tree-tea"
were favorite medicines. A stomach-ache got Radways medicine and a stubborn
will got the peach tree switch. A toe itch got parched (roasted) sweet
potato leaves, or sulphur, and lard. She practiced cleanliness and ten
thousand childish cares and sorrows were lost at mother’s knees or in her
lap. Always prompt with fresh "done up" clothes for her preacher husband to
go to his appointments on Friday evening or early Saturday. She prepared
three meals a day for her hungry crowd. Guests were unfailingly welcome and
the patching and mending endless. She sang at work and Carey reveres the
times he lay on the floor while she ran her sewing machine given to her by
her husband’s Baptist flock. He remembers the old songs "In the Sweet Bye
and Bye", "Nearer My God to Thee" and "Rock of Ages".
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There were many more of those kind of mothers
in that day in Old Dacus, but none could have received a sweeter more
heartfelt tribute.
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I feel sure there was a close tie between
George Daniel and James Goodin in the Bethel-Dacus communities. Goodin’s
store was the common ground meeting place for matters outside the church and
school. Daniel was the minister among others in that area and in his son’s
tribute to his father he lists some of the things his father was good at and
one was "run a store". Goodin had a store and a friend George Daniel. In
light of more story and evidence to come, I think a strong bond formed
between these two men. All evidence points to both men being without
parallel as to being a neighbor and community leader. Both men were blessed
with the wife selected. By Mrs. Binford’s account, Goodin probably had a
stroke and may have lain bedridden for a number of years. Carefully and
lovingly tended by his wife. George Daniel surely helped as a minister.
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Old Dacus 1872, Chapter 28
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In Chapter Twenty-six of this story we quote
from George Daniel who raised ten children, saw them all grown and he
himself lived in spite of all the beginning hardships lived to be seventy
two years old, his wife lived ten years longer after his death, being eighty
at death. In those days, life expectancy was much shorter than today and as
quoted before, when George and Sarah received guests he would call in his
youngest child, a girl named Zonetta and proudly announce "This is number
ten". Descendants of George and Sarah Daniel are the authors of much of my
material on the Daniel family. Their story tells of one of the few times,
maybe the only time, a doctor was called because Father George was
threatened with pneumonia, he said, "This is the first time we have ever
needed a doctor for any disease.: Since the Daniel family moved from the
Dacus-Bethel community to Willis about 1892 and since George would have been
fifty, six years old, they were probably living in Willis when he got sick.
While on the subject of disease, which George Daniel and family were just
one family of many family living in the twin communities experiencing and
coping with the same health conditions at the same time, all childhood
diseases and malaria then very common were cured by home remedies, while
childbirth is not a disease there were few options for women at that time,
and for many families the children were born at two year intervals. Having
the facts before me courtesy of the McDaniel descendants George and Sarah’s
ten children were born in 1780, 1872, 1875, 1876, 1877, 1880, 1881, 1885,
1887, and 1889. All born in Old Dacus, six or more miles northwest of
Montgomery a doctor from Montgomery, if called to attend a birth, would have
traveled by horseback or buggy that is "if the Good Lord’s willing and the
creek don’t rise." quoting from the written and recorded story of the Daniel
family is the same story of all the other families of Bethel Dacus. To quote
one from of the home remedies I read an article titled "Texas in 1840 the
immigrants guide to the new Republic by an immigrant; cure for the bite of a
rattlesnake".
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Naming some remedies; as communicated by a
physician and based upon his own experiences, "To the freshly bitten surface
he applied a bright coal of fire on the end of a burning hickory stick and
kept it there long enough to produce a deep blister. This cure was performed
on a soldier’s leg and next day the man could march. As soon as the person
is bitten the wound should be scarified with a lancet or perhaps penknife
and any alkali rubbed in to it, relief is immediate. This must be the
forerunner of using kerosene on the bite. It would be well to drink freely
of weak lye and take a cathartic."
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Old Dacus 1872, Chapter 29
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The article titled "Texans in 1840, or the
Immigrants Guide to the New Republic --by an immigrant". Gave the remedy and
cure for snakebite as communicated by a physician and based upon his own
experiences. This "cure" had no touch of reality and perhaps was never read
by our early settlers some parts of the "cure" were still believed and
practiced well into the twentieth century.
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I want to include another passage of the
Immigrant’s seemingly great knowledge of Texas and the diseases of Texas. In
all probability the settlers of our widely spread communities never read or
even heard of this Immigrant Guide. I’m sure if they had they would feel as
I do? What planet did this Immigrant live on?!
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This article was written by the editor of two
of the newspapers in Texas in 1840, probably the only two, The Texas
Register and The Telegraph under the title of one of the paragraphs called
diseases the editor/author states:
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"The diseases incident to the climate of Texas
are few, and generally yield easily to a judicious remedial course.
Intermittent and remittent fevers are the most common disorders, and
generally prevail during the months of August, September, and October; the
rest of the year is quite healthy. These fevers are chiefly induced by
long continued exposure to the sun, to great bodily fatigue. Occasionally
by severe labor or by the use of unwholesome food. When the remittent
fever assumes a congestive type, it is quite dangerous and is commonly
denominated congestive fever. Females are but little subjected to these
disorders as their avocation enable them to be almost constantly sheltered
from the sun and they are seldom required to endure fatigue. Travelers who
rashly venture to cross the prairies of the country under the scorching
noon day sun are very liable to contract them. Those who travel early in
the morning and toward the close of evening are seldom subject to those
attacks and remain healthy. Male immigrants during the first year after
their arrival in the Country are subject to these attacks owing generally
to inexperience and carelessness. The immigrant too often immediately
after his arrival engages in labors and subjects himself to privations ten
fall more severe than he had been accustomed to at home."
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The only reason to include this ridiculous
writing is to have a laugh about what would have happened to this editor if
he had undertaken to really immigrate to our early day Republic of Texas.
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In 1872, when James Goodin and his sons began
building their huge plantation style operation there was a large number of
dedicated families who’s primary aim was to promote education and the
progress of their church and social well-being. We know the names Wheeler,
Lowery, Daniel Sr. and Daniel son of Carey were all ministers in the Old
Dacus-Bethel communities as well as the husband of Elizabeth Uzzell, a
Baptist minister named P. Greene. Then there was Rev. M.M. Welch born in the
community and spending sixty plus years, plus visiting many out-of-the-way
churches or home gatherings to deliver the Lord’s word or to conduct a
wedding or help someone meet death. He was a mainstay at Bethel Church, but
he could be called upon at Montgomery, Dobbin, Magnolia, Scott Ridge or any
where he wanted or needed. All of Dacus-Bethel spawned ministers did duty at
one time or another at the very determined community of Mt. Pleasant, a few
miles east of Old Dacus and Bethel.
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Old Dacus 1872, Chapter 31
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The Old Dacus-Bethel community seemed to
produce more than its share of circuit riding preachers. All of those men
were ministers and missionaries who worked hand-in-hand with their citizen
charges to keep their spiritual life and care above average. Dacus-Bethel
has another thing to be proud of perhaps because of the "Vigilance to duty"
by the ministers, no record has ever been found of a saloon or place where
spirits of any kind could be bought. Montgomery was the nearest town and it
had the reputation of having a saloon in every other building in the town.
Even David Lipscomb, the Church of Christ minister when traveling through
Texas described the town of Montgomery as "a small and lifeless body of
disciples. The very capable brethren have allowed their ministers to be
taken up with other things to the loss of interest in the church," Drinking?
Gambling? Politics?
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Certainly politics were of great concern and
interest in old community. Those members served on Juries, served as Road
Commissioners, filled county seats and served as teachers and school
trustees. There was much interest in political speakings and the candidates.
The Bethel Church site was a popular spot for political speaking. One such
gathering in 1878 was described by a Mr. Renfro, a barbecue was held, during
the speech of a very unpopular candidate guns were drawn, knives were
flashed but the speaker was allowed to leave still alive. By all accounts
the second goal of the community was education for every child, the best
they could obtain. In researching County records, it was shown that although
all the inhabitants were not invited in the Baptist religion but written
accounts of individual families shows a solid joining of minds as to
education. One such account reads: Clinton W. Nugent was born on a farm six
miles N.W. of Montgomery (Old Dacus) on 9-15-1865. He attended the county
school for 18 months taught mainly by his father and lived there until
twenty years old 1885. He was the main support of a large family. He married
into the Carson family, large planters and stock farmers of Montgomery.
Nugent departed from the "norm" of Old Dacus being a Methodist among
Baptist. This account of C.W. Nugent and his early life in Old Dacus as
written by a member of his family certainly shows that there was more than
one school there. The general rule was to try to have some sort of teaching
every three miles, about the distance a first grader was able to walk. The
age of the beginner was different then and the first grader had to be seven
years old before the first of January. The Uzzell clan, two brothers and
their families moved just south of where the Goodin Store would be built in
the future, both men playing a very prominent part in all aspects of the
life in Old Dacus.
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| James Price sent me a copy of the County Court
records for the year 1847 when the leading citizens of the town of
Montgomery acting on the provisions of an act of Congress of the Republic of
Texas, organized a church and school association. James H. Price, great
grandfather of our local James Price was elected president. Old Dacus was
too far to effect the community at the time and were still having to hold
school in their homes. Reading accounts left us, about the effects of the
Civil War, education both private and public had to be put on hold, but not
our never-say-die Bethel-Dacus leaders. These twin communities kept on
keeping on and later demanded recognition as public schools. |
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Old Dacus 1872, Chapter 31
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I have found no written record of when the
residents of the Old Dacus Bethel community joined together to erect a
building and designated a spot beside the building for a cemetery. In the
book "Centennial Story of Texas Baptists" their story says there was only
one Baptist Church in Texas in 1835 and less than fifty Baptists. Since we
already had that date such men as F.A.B. Wheeler, son-in-law Daniel and the
loudly devout Uzzell family in our story area, we have to believe Bethel
Church, Bethel school and Bethel cemetery was more than a dream. The above
book also states the Mt. Pleasant Church was established in 1838. During
this period, the town of Fanthorpe, now Anderson was the nearest neighboring
community to the west, was visited by Rev. Z.N. Morrell, a Baptist minister
acting in defiance of the Mexican rule, visited Fanthorpe in 1842 and
organized a church there in 1844 and pushed on to establish the Baptist
General Convention in 1848. Without delay, Wheeler’s son-in-law, Allen
Lowery became a charter member. This was perhaps the founding of the Bethel
Baptist Church, though the church was not to become official until 1864 when
it was admitted to the Union Baptist Association in Plantersville in 1864.
The Rev. Isaac Park was the Circuit Rider type of preacher and was in charge
of the Baptist Church in Fanthorpe-Anderson and General Convention at
Anderson. Because Rev. Parks was very devout and earnest in his duties, he
showed a great interest in the Bethel Church matters. He kept a daily diary
from 1861 to 1875 about fourteen years spanning the years from the beginning
of the Civil War through the hard recovery years. He tells of his visits to
the Baptist Church at Bethel. Although the Bethel Church was not an early
member of an association, it is proven that it was one of the very first
gatherings of Baptist Believers.
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| Searching records I find that several men and
women in Dacus-Bethel were in a committee that began the Baptist Church in
Montgomery in 1850. This indicates to me that the residents surrounding the
Bethel Baptist Church were strongly united and confident of the strength of
their little church, so much as to feel they didn’t need to be recognized by
anyone else. The motion to establish a Baptist church in the town of
Montgomery was made by Elizabeth Uzzell, one of the earliest homesteaders in
Old Dacus. Others of Dacus attending the organizing were R.F. Oliver, Allen
Lowery, Burrell Anders, Martha Oliver, Lydia Uzzell and Phoebe Rigby. (Look
back in recent chapters in this story of Old Dacus and read the obituary of
Mrs. Lizzie Brister, died at age 108; died at her home near Dacus) which
means Old Dacus. Mrs. Brister died in the home where she was born, Route 2,
Montgomery. She was a member of the Montgomery Baptist Church. Certainly she
became a member when her family member R.F. Oliver was there to organize the
church. The Burrell Anders listed above is still talked about today by
cattle and hog ranchers in the area, citing a well known location in the
National Forest area as the Old Anders field a hundred and fifty years
later. |
As surely as there was a very first Baptist
Church in Bethel just as surely there was a school in that building. When
the county divided up into school districts, Bethel and the yet unknown
officially Dacus was called District Three in 1854. The State Census shows
school funds in 1854-1855 to be sixty two cents per capita. The Archives of
State of the State Library of Texas shows District Three to have nineteen
children of school age in 1854. Possibly the nearest school-church that has
a recorded story of the way of life , is the Gilmore school, near Longstreet,
north of Old Dacus. David and Newton Jones tells us that whenever someone in
a community thought they were qualified to teach or hold a school, they
prepared a place in their home or adjoining their home, and set up a school.
The Jones Brothers were descendants of Thomas Gilmore who built a house and
called it the Gilmore School. This building was also used for church
services until a church was organized. By all accounts the pattern followed
by many communities during those beginning years and certainly true of
Bethel Baptist Church and school.
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Chapter 32 missing [jhs]
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Old Dacus 1872, Chapter 33
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| The community known as Dacus some six miles
northwest of Montgomery was officially designated a "Post Village" in 1889
when a post office was established there in James Goodins store. Old Dacus
had a twin community just three miles north up the road. It was named
Bethel, we know that Old Dacus laid claim to post office, a wonderful well
of water, used and loved by people for miles around, a store, a cotton gin,
a blacksmith shop, a couple of sawmills, a grist mill and a beautiful
showplace home with flowers of every kind, while Bethel owned the school and
the Baptist church with many dedicated members. The two communities, so near
and yet so far if you traveled by horseback or buggy or "rode" "Shank’s
mare", the phrase used at that time to mean you walked. |
| Each community carried on their separate but
everyday lives, separate yet joined and it seems happily self-contained. The
different blessings made the different communities even. |
| Mrs. Della Binford ‘s letter of her memories of
the store say she does not remember a grocery part of the store, most people
of that day and certainly of a rural area such as Dacus, raised most of
their food, a trip to a grocery outlet would have meant buying in large
amounts such as by the barrel or hundred pound sacks. As in my own family, a
trip to the markets in Houston was a twice a year affair by wagon, a camp
out in Houston for several days while they sold their home-raised stock or
produce and returned with a six month supply of their needs. When Montgomery
County Commissioners Court ruled in April 1854 that Dacus-Bethel were united
as school district three a special election was ordered and held in district
three the site was to be in the "school house where Mr. Knight teaches
school" no clue as to that location, but Elisha Uzzell was appointed by the
Chief Justice to hold the election and since we have established with
certainty where the Uzzell homestead was a good mile south of the Goodin
store location. That should prove there was a large school in Old Dacus,
surely it was the Hopewell School. The first division of school funds was
made in 1854-1855 and was a whopping 62 cents per child. In that year, 1854,
there, there were nineteen children, and the funds allotted was $11.78. To
compare our schools today with yesterday is mind-boggling. As usual money,
or the lack of it was ever present a copy of county court records owned by
Mr. and Mrs. Harley Gandy show the County not only totally out of funds in
1888 but badly in debt. Only one person in the county was able to pay a
penny in taxes that year that person being C.B. Stewart which he duly paid.
One of the school fund records I found noted in an after-thought manner
stated " schools receiving operating money in 1878 including Mount Pleasant,
white school receiving $83.21, Mt. Pleasant black school receiving $147.41".
If you locate the community known as Mt Pleasant today, you will not be able
to vision there being that many people of each race ever being there. The
Longstreet colored school got $113.12 and the Yell colored school got $95.10
both these reflecting the large population of descendants of pre Civil War
slaves. Montgomery Christian Church only got $78.45 while though I believe
there was a school in Old Dacus as equally large as Bethel, this account
does not list a school district separate from Bethel and does not list funds
for a Dacus school, it does list Bethel as receiving $68.94 listing it as
being Bethel Church. On the Clinton W. Nugent story of his life in Old
Dacus, there is the statement that The Montgomery County School District
recognized the areas as separate Bethel being school district 12 and Dacus
being District 39. |
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Old Dacus 1897, Chapter 34
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Bethel
School/Church building 1897, Dacus, Texas, January 4, 1897-Antonio Frank
Jr. , teacher.
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There are thirty three pupils and a teacher in
this picture of the Bethel School. We must remember that a post office had
been established in Old Dacus about three miles south of Bethel in 1818 some
nine years before this photo was made. This makes me even more positive that
there was a Hopewell School well in force by 1897 in Old Dacus. In light of
the huge establishment created by James Goodin and wife at Old Dacus, there
surely were many more school age children than those shown at the Bethel
school. What with George Daniel, an ordained minister giving his address as
Hopewell and with Molly Ward’s account of attending the Hopewell School,
boarding with the George Daniel family added to the fact that Dacus and
Bethel were later separated into two districts seems to prove my point. Then
George Daniel applied to the Post Office Department in Washington to
establish such, he said the post office would supply a population of 500. Of
certainty the office would supply Dacus, Bethel and many more outlying
homesteaders. An interesting note to this population number is the fact that
when a petition was made to the Post Office Department to move the Old Dacus
post office location to the new location across Big Lake Creek where the new
railroad was coming through, the move being made some twenty years later,
the petition said the new location would serve about 100 people. Although my
able helper researcher Paul Martin never could "prove up" the Hopewell
School. Paul interviewed Stanley "Bud" Binford, descendant of the first
families of Old Dacus and the son of Bill and Della Binford, Mrs. Binford’s
letter describing the Goodin Mall has been included already. Della Binford
was born a Heaton whose family adjoined the adjoined the Bethel Church and
Cemetery. Della went to school at the Bethel Church/Schoolhouse. Bill
Binford her husband was raised in sight of the Goodin Store, three miles
south of Bethel. Bud’s father went to school but he never attended the
Bethel School. Both Paul and I believe Bill Binford attended Hopewell School
at Dacus. That’s my story and I’m going to stick with it and now move on to
the new post office and the exciting life of Old Dacus afterward.
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Old Dacus 1897, Chapter 35
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Old Dacus 1904
I will now attempt to trace the route of the Old Dacus post office as it
traveled cross-county from 1899 to its end in 1953, when the New Dacus post
office was closed and the mailed delivered from the Montgomery post office.
Records from the National Archives concerning the Old Dacus post office tell
the slow death of both the Old and New Dacus post office, which began with
the death of James Goodin in 1904.
From the time in 1889 when the post office in Old Dacus became a reality,
the social activity in both Dacus and Bethel grew at a rapid pace. Goodin’s
Store where the post office was located had a double drawing card, but the
Bethel Church had both a strong religious draw and became widely known for
its strong stand and activity in political matters. Life in both communities
seemed to be good and the habits of self-sufficiency was the rule of life.
Church, Sunday School. “Dinner on the Ground” political rallies, “play
parties” where the girls packed special box suppers that were bid for by
their would-be boy friends. Protracted church meetings, brush-arbor meetings
held by religious groups other than the totally Baptist Bethel Church, as to
school activity accelerated, the local county paper, now known as the Conroe
Courier encouraged writers of the two communities to relay the news of those
residents and although none of the writers revealed their names, one of the
reports in that paper around 1900 had two reports on the same page one was
“Dacus Doings” by Richeliu, dated 1902 which told that the “singing held at
W.L. Goodin’s on Sunday evening was enjoyed by the young people, that the
cotton boll weevil had already appeared on the cotton, but the sweet
potatoes, sugar cane and the vegetable gardens were doing great! On the
opposite side of the same page of the Conroe Courier in August 1902 there
was the news item titled “Bethel Bits” by Special Correspondent. It tells us
that Miss Belle Lowery and father have returned to Falls County: Mr. McLeods
family were troubled with a mad dog last week, the dog attempted to bite Mr.
Jones; Mr. Welch will preach Sunday and Mr. Jim Singleton ran away last
Sunday, Robert Singleton found him near Dacus. Other Dacus Doings to appear
in the Courier were; C.P. Welch who has been attending the Normal at
Rosenburg arrived home Saturday. There were a goodly number of visitors at
Bethel (Church) Sunday two many to list. Mrs. Atterberry and Miss Belle Pool
were baptized Sunday, M Welch officiating. Mrs. Bell Lowery and son spent
several days last week visiting, Mr. Tom Fost of Sulphur Branch is tearing
away his gin (once known as Grey Brothers gin) and moving it to Bedias in
Grimes County. J.D. Binford, who has been clerking in a dry good
establishment in Tyler is at home for a rest. A young lady arrived at the
home of Mr. and Mrs J.H. Goodin’s, Aug.2. mother and babe doing well. Quite
a crowd of young people attended the dance at Mrs. Foster’s near Montgomery
Friday night, they must have had a huge time as it was daylight Saturday
morning when they arrived home. A report from the Bethel Bits says that
continued rains had all the creeks on the rise, fences washed away, cattle
drowned and the bridge on Lake Creek washed away. Also some of the Belles’
were out persimmon hunting Sunday afternoon, no report on how many they
found. Mr Jerningan son-in-law of James Goodin has a nice new buggy. A
report from the news source tells of the marriage of Miss Annie Bell Binford
and the closing of the school in Bethel. A much later news item dated 1924,
the Bethel news item tells of Dr. Covington of Montgomery visiting the sick,
among them being Mr. John Holmes and Leslie Curling. Also a Mr. Wells of
Iola will teach a singing school at Bethel in July and a church protracted
meeting will began in July. The newspaper items show that the two
communities, so near or so far to walk ride horseback or wagon/buggy carried
on their everyday lives separate yet joined and happily self-contained.
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Old Dacus 1904, Chapter 36
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Records from the archives reflect the tragedy
and its effect when James Goodin died in 1904-Reports from people who knew
or had been told show that Mr. Goodin probably was bed-ridden and had lost
his speech. Mrs. Goodin nursed him around the clock and talked to him by
writing on a slate with chalk. Reports say he got great comfort from her
attention. James Goodin was sixty nine years old when he died and E.E. Ann,
his wife was the same age. When it was all over for Mr. Goodin, the store,
the post office, the grist mill, sawmill and many other types of services
were left to her at close to seventy years old. She knew she could not take
care of it all and the first move she made was to prevail on a friend who
had a close tie through the sawmill business, to take over the Dacus post
office. Walter T. Taylor operated a large sawmill "Town" two and a half
miles west of Goodin’s Store. The mill site was near the Bill and Della
Heaton Binford home. Their son, Bud Binford, living on the old homestead
site, often took his boys to visit the old Taylor sawmill site and found a
brass post office box key probably the one piece of evidence of the
existence of the Dacus post office still around. Archive records show Walter
Taylor operated the post office from April 1904 to Jan. 1907. Apparently
John L. Goodin decided he wanted to be a postmaster and took over Dacus
still situated at Taylor’s Mill. He only lasted from Jan. 23, 1907 to April
24, 1907. At that point his mother E.E. Ann Goodin. Stepped back into the
job. She seemed to have gained some strength and energy, but I’m sure the
deciding in again assuming the job of "postmaster" again was in the marriage
of her daughter, Lou Eddie to Willis Jernigan. They were married in
Montgomery and Mrs. Binford describes the wedding in her letter in previous
chapters. The couple married in 1903 and lived in East Texas, where Mr.
Jernigan was born. When Lou Eddie Jernigan’s father died in 1904, they knew
they should move to Dacus and take over the huge Goodin’s enterprise. Since
the brother John L., didn’t want to be postmaster, his mother took over that
job and turned the rest of the Goodin business over to her daughter and
son-in-law. Mrs. E.E.A. Goodin operated the post office at the Taylor Mill
site from April 24, 1907 to April 6, 1912.
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There were many changes in the Old-New Dacus
area. In the history of Grimes County by James L. Montgomery, he writes:
Richards a town several miles north of the New Dacus post office was born
July 1st, 1907 when the first Trinity and Brazos Valley (T&BV) passenger
train came down the line from Dallas. There had been a few earlier freight
trains to struggle down the line and even one previous interrupted passenger
train as early as Jan. 28, 1907, but there were bridges to repair and track
to re-engineer before that momentous day in July, when the uninterrupted
trains came down the track from Dallas. This event and the foregone
knowledge that rail transportation was a certainty was surely the cause of
Walter Taylor moving his sawmill business from the East side of the
treacherous Big Lake Creek to the safe from the overflow and mud slides west
of the coming railroad. In rainy seasons and in winter Big Lake Creek kept
those people west of Lake Creek cut off from mail delivery for days even
weeks at a time. Eleanor Denn Lane says her aunt, Mrs. Carrie Denn tells of
her brother Chesley Hyde trying to deliver mail from the Taylor Mill site of
Old Dacus to people on the west side of the new railroad during the period
between 1907 and 1912. On April 20, 1909, Walter Taylor made an application
to move the Dacus post office from his mill site location near the Binford
home on the east side of Big Lake Creek to the site of the new rail road
west of Big Lake Creek. The post master general took awhile to approve this
move, perhaps tired of handling the always on the move facility and because
the nearest post office was more than three miles away and the most deciding
factor being that the new location would serve more than three hundred
people.
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Old Dacus 1907-1953, Chapter 37
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Records show that an application to move the
Dacus post office from the Walter Taylor millsite near the Binford homeplace
was made in April 1907. The application was not signed but states that the
desired new location would be three and one half miles northwest. Evidently
the post office department took their own good time because there is a
second request to move the Dacus office dated June 20th, 1909, and this time
the request was signed by Walter Taylor although he scratched out the words
postmaster or proposed postmaster under his name on the application. Records
seem to indicate that Walter Taylor served from 1904 to 1907, then turned
the office over to John L. Goodin in Jan. 1907 then John L., turned it back
to his mother E.E.A. Goodin that same year, April 1907. In April 1907, an
application to the post office department styled as "Candidate" and signed
by Walter Taylor applied to move the post office from Binford home Taylor
sawmill site to a proposed new site being one and quarter miles west. Taylor
also stated that the nearest post office would be at Vance, Texas.
Apparently the application was filled out in June, 1907. This application
required a map and gave the proposed site as being two and one half miles
northwest. This second application did not require Taylor’s name, evidently
planning to use Taylor’s first application after corrections were made. The
first application said that one hundred or over population would be
supplied. The second application two months later said that about three
hundred would be served. Incomplete records seem to show that Walter Taylor
held the office at its new site on the T&BV railroad and west of Big Lake
Creek until the next postmistress was appointed in April 1912 a lady named
Amanda Lipscomb. This lady was in office from April 6th 1912 to January 23,
1913 when George E. Denn took over. This fine man served from January 23,
1913 to February 21, 1918 when Felix Anderson took over Anderson acted as
postmaster from 1918 to 1924 and moved on for Louis Lipscomb to take over,
he served from March 1924 to November 1927 and gave the office over to Henry
L. Montgomery in 1927, serving in that office three years Montgomery moved
on and Willie B. Whatley took over in December 1930, Whatley served until
1932 then Louis Lipscomb took over again, apparently Lipscomb was in for the
long run because the records show that there was no change of postmasters in
the New Dacus post office until Mrs. Carrie A. Doyle took over September
1942. Records show that Mrs. Doyle served from 1942 to 1946 and that William
M. Doyle assumed charge in 1946. The records show that William M. Doyle was
appointed by the post office department in February 1947. William M. Doyle
served the New Dacus post office until November 23, 1953 when the New Dacus
post office was officially closed and the mail was routed to the community
through the Montgomery post office.
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The move of the "Ghost Town" post office
quickly saw many changes in the community on both sides of Big Lake Creek.
Those on the East side were connected by a rural route out of Montgomery and
that ended at Big Lake Creek on the East side. That creek could be depended
on to stop traffic cross many times a year because of overflow or washed out
bridges. The finishing of an all time travel road from Dobbin to "New Dacus"
to Richards brought mail to those on the West side of Big Lake Creek either
through Montgomery post office or by the train. There was a depot, a
railroad workers boardinghouse a train watering station complete with a huge
water tank (where the local teenage boys slipped by all the "watchdog"
officials and their parents and went swimming) this Dacus post office both
the old and new created much growth, pleasure, convenience, created a much
larger social and financial era to a new group of the population of our
rural areas.
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The T&BV railroad and the trains that traveled
it were blessings and also caused many problems. Animals, humans and
vehicles fell victims, for lack of fencing along the tracks and because
there was no stock law cattle and other livestock were killed. For a time,
the mail carrier out of Montgomery carried mail all the way to New Dacus
crossing Big Lake Creek whenever the creek would permit. A real tragedy took
place in New Dacus when the carrier Jeptha Jep Davis, a member of a fine
Davis clan prominent in many ways was killed by the train on the T&BV
delivering mail to New Dacus. To describe this terrible incident I quote
from a story in the Montgomery County History given by his son, Jeptha Boone
Davis, he writes: "Papa was a mail carrier and delivered mail 30 or 40 years
on a rural route out of Montgomery sometimes by horseback sometimes by car
Papa was killed by a train while on the job delivering mail on December 3,
1936 at Dacus, Texas. His salary began at $100 a month." Mr. Davis left many
strong, true citizens to the town of Montgomery still living in the
Montgomery area.
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This last page of the story of Old Dacus is to
say good bye to a time and era forever gone and last I’m very glad my
lifetime was spent in that era for I benefited beyond measure a benefit that
is unexplainable and so unbelievable by the generations that have followed.
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