Robertson County - TXGenWeb

See also Ghostly Haunts Collection

"Ghost Towns Of Robertson County" is a collection of interesting facts concerning the earliest settlements in Robertson County. Although all traces of these early towns no longer exist, their memory is honored and preserved with Texas Historical Markers. This booklet is published as a special edition for the 1975 Robertson County Springtime Pilgrimage and in celebration of the bicentennial year.

-- Mrs. Katherine Galloway

Mount Vernon

31 01 18 N / -96 36 02 W
(The site where Mount Vernon once was is 6 miles east of Calvert)

While Sterling and Port Sullivan were growing on the western border of Robertson County, other settlements developed east of the present Calvert. On the upland, between the tributaries of Walnut and Mud Creek, the Mount Vernon community was a settled area as early as 1840. Little Mississippi, six miles to the east, was its neighboring community.

The first settlers in the area were from Mississippi. The economic panic of the 1830s drove them from the Old South and they moved westward in wagons. The journeys were harrowing experiences that drew them closer together. As they moved across the country, they examined land and settled in areas that reminded them of their homeland.

They were independent farmers who depended little on slave labor. Entire families worked in the fields and became hardened by frontier life. They were a religious people, taking great pride in church life. The land they selected in Robertson's Colony was like that from which they came, upland with creek tributaries, and they made it provide all their needs.

Their first homes were of rough lumber and their barns were of logs. They were farmers and depended entirely on cotton for revenue. They raised hogs and cows, grew grain and sweet sorghum. Families were fed well with milk, ham, molasses, and corn.

In 1848, the school at Mount Vernon listed among its pupils: Thomas Webb, Joseph Webb, James Harrell, J. J. Hodge, E. Campbell, W. Blackburn, J. L. Parish, C. E. Gray, E. Bennett, George STrong, and B. Wheelis.

Mount Vernon was on the road that ran from Sterling to Owensville. There was a trail into the community from Old Franklin that made communication in the center of the county convenient. The people over the one hundred square mile area became friends and traders, and the children of the first families became residents of other towns in the county.

When Owensville became the county seat in 1856, a number of Mount Vernon families moved to the new town. When railroad work was available in 1869, more moved away. When it became evident that the hills and valleys were to be missed by major highways and rails, the population of Mount Vernon was reduced to only a few families.

At the turn of the century, the community was practically gone. In 1920, only four old homes remained. The contribution of Mount Vernon to the story of the county was the fact that early families produced teachers, ministers, public officials, and business leaders over the state. Some became prominent; one was President of Southwestern University.

The area between Franklin and Calvert is now given over to cattle raising. Small farms that once grew cotton are combined into ranches. Walking over its prairie, it is not uncommon to see the remains of log barns or a "broad ax" in the ground. A few rail fences remain in the woodlands and a native stone chimney is still there.