Anderson/Navasota
You may recall the flag of France at one time flew over Texas. This was the result of exploration done by Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle. After exploring the length of the Mississippi River from Canada to the Gulf, claiming it for France, and naming it Louisiana in honor of the French king, Louis XIV, he convinced the king to fund another expedition.300 colonists and four ships headed this direction in 1684. Pirates captured the St. Francois. The Amiable ran agound. The Joli was sent back to France. The Belle wrecked on the shore of Palacios Bay stranding the rest of the expedition. It's timber was used to establish a fort. In 1687, LaSalle and seventeen of the remaining men decided to seek help by traveling overland back to Canada. His unhappy crew rebelled murdering LaSalle, his nephew, and two other crew members near what is now Navasota.
Early settlers were farmers who came here from other parts of the United States as colonists of Stephen F. Austin. Cotton grew well on this "bottom land".
Anderson
and Navasota in Grimes County were towns which grew up along two major
stagecoach routes and the Brazos river waterway. Locate the Brazos
River on a physical
map of Texas. Fanthorp
Inn , shown in this picture, was one of the first stage stops in Texas.
Imagine riding in a stagecoach pulled by four to six horses or mules.
On good days you would have been able to travel about eight miles per
hour. At that rate, how long would it take you to travel 170 miles
from Houston to Dallas?
Sarah Dodson, the Betsy Ross of Texas, who designed and made the first Lone Star flag, lived and is buried in Bedias north of Anderson.
During the Civil War, this location was an important Confederate assembly area and arms depot. What is a "depot" in this context? When the war ended in 1865, Confederate soldiers who had not been paid and who were angry because they lost the war, burned Navasota. Before cities had running water, fires were fought using bucket brigades.
Records indicate there was a Fire Department in Navasota as early as 1877. Money in their bank account depended on "donations from grateful recipients of their services, plus fines imposed on the firemen themselves. $2. for failure to follow rules in drill and 25¢ for using profanity."
This
Welsh design courthouse in Anderson is the only one of its kind in Texas.
It was built in 1894 and contains original Mexican land grant recordings.
It is also the place where a member of the Clyde Barrow gang (Bonnie
and Clyde) was tried. Frank Hamer, who had been city marshall in Navasota,
is credited with tracking down this gang.
Books to Read
- CHARLEY SKEDADDLE by Patricia Beatty; Morrow Junior Books, 1987
- EXPLORERS IN EARLY TEXAS by Betsy Warren; Hendrick-Long Publishing Co., 1992
- THE BOYS' WAR by Jim Murphy; Scholastic, 1990
- A SEPARATE
BATTLE: WOMEN AND THE CIVIL WAR by Ina Chang; Scholastic, 1991
Suggested Activity:
We could spend an enormous amount of time reading the history of the world, or the country, or even the state. Sometimes the amount of information is overwhelming and it helps to simplify events by placing important ones on a timeline.- Create a timeline of your life picking an important event or special memory from each year. The events from the time you were born to the present should be in one color or a special font of your choice.
- Using a different color or font (style of type), extend the line and make some predictions. If you could be or do anything, what would it be? When would it happen?
Try to imagine what life might be like in the future. When my grandmother was born in 1889, people were traveling on foot, by horseback, or wagon. Trains were few and far between. In her 98 years, she lived to see automobiles, buses, prop driven airplanes, helicopters, jets, space shuttles. People thought the idea of the automobile was crazy. Go ahead...be crazy, you might be the next Henry Ford.
For more information, write to:
117 South LaSalle (P.O.Box 530)