Texans’ long history of acquiring, trading and hoarding land had its origins during
some hard times. The phrase,
“Gone to Texas,” or “GTT” as it is called today, was a fugitive’s forwarding address in the 1830s as he made his escape across the Red or Sabine
rivers into Mexican Texas. There he hoped to start a new life
—sometimes with a new identity.
Many who entered the borders of Mexican Texas had probably picked up stakes in
the middle of the night, never to be seen again by family and friends. Texas
welcomed them all, and still does
—land dealers, adventurers, families, preachers and yes, fugitives from justice—most all seeking cheap land. Once in Texas, opportunities to begin a new life
were in abundance. In fact, Texas was so big, that if things didn
’t work out in one place, its residents could simply move to a different part of
the state and start again, sometimes multiple times. And, they acquired land,
lots of it. Trying to track someone across Texas in 1840 was a lost cause,
unless you were a Texas Ranger. It isn
’t too easy today, either.
How do I know this? Well, like any good Texan, I’m fascinated with the land where my house sits, near Spring Creek in southern
Montgomery County. I love my little plot. My land has history and character,
and I
’m on the trail to flesh out its story. Finding all its previous owners, although
they are named in the deeds, isn
’t easy. I’ve come to expect an alias here and there.
The earliest record I could find of any activity near Spring Creek was in a
diary published in 1714 revealing that my neighborhood was near a path taken by
French explorer LaSalle in 1687. He, with his men, came right through here on
his way northwest, probably within a mile of my house.
Searching through land records, I discovered that an early Texan by the name of
Allen patented property in my neighborhood in 1847. There were few inhabitants
in the area when Allen appeared on the Texas scene about 1835. He signed a
local petition, sojourned in the area, receiving a patent on some 3,000 acres,
then dropped out of sight.
Settlers august have had lots of land, but they didn’t have much hard cash. It is common to find that a piece of land was patented,
then quickly sold, or sometimes acquired in payment for
clearing a patent out of the patent office. My actual property is part of a
larger tract that was patented in 1846 by an early settler named John Taylor
who acquired 4,428.40 acres for having settled in Texas before 1836. It is
unknown if this John Taylor ever had a house on this site, but perhaps further
research will tell me if and where one was located.
Another interesting part of this land’s history took place in the aftermath of the Civil War. In May 1865, Federal
troops, sent to Texas by Washington to
“control” the unruly Texas Confederate sympathizers, could be seen riding through
Montgomery County south as they made their way to Liendo Plantation. Led by
General George Armstrong Custer, later of Little Big Horn fame, 3,000 men on
horseback stopped to rest and to water their horses in nearby Spring Creek
according to an account kept by one of Custer
’s soldiers.
The early 1900s found the woods in my neighborhood humming with the buzz of
sawmills, the major industry at that time, and by the late-20th century,
parcels of reforested land had been sold, creating a series of tracts known
today as The Woodlands, Texas. Therein sits my piece of Texas.
My plot is small, but it is all mine, and like any good Texan, I’m hangin’ onto it!l
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