The Road to Hudson Bend, 1896

In Elaine Perkins book (see references) she tells a wonderful story. Back between 1870 and 1940, she explains, cedar was in big demand, for building, heating; it even played a role in producing tin for construction of the Texas State Capitol, and in building railroads. The transport of cedar and cedar coal to Austin to sell was a big business.

The Milams were early settlers in the Hudson Bend area. Perkins relates a story of a time when Brice Milan and son Ed brought a load of cedar into Austin for sale (Perkins, p.128):

When Bryce (sic) Milam's son Ed was very young, his father sent him home alone after selling a load of wood [in Austin]. It was a scary time for a boy so young .. On the way home, young Ed crossed the river at McGill Ford and somehow got off the road. He saw a large house near Barton Springs and drove up to it. A man came out of the house and, seeing  the boy crying, asked, "Young man, where do you want to go?" Ed tearfully replied, "Well, I want to go to the Hudson Bend up on the Colorado River by old Bee Cave." The old-timer comforted the boy and replied, "You turn down there and take that road." Young Ed was finally able to find his way home.

When I first read this story I had recently finished a blog about the McGill Ford so was intrigued to find an anecdotal story putting McGill Ford on the route from Austin to Hudson Bend. So this blog will explore the route young Ed Milam probably took on his way home.

To tell what route Ed might have taken, it would be good to know when this took place in order to find the right map of what roads were in existence at the time. While Perkins story doesn't provide a year, Find A Grave can get us in the ballpark. Bartley Burris Milam (1820-1903) came to Travis County in 1859; he had a son James Brice Milam (1850-1937); and Brice had a son Edward Thurman Milam (1875-1968). It is "Ed Milam" that made the trip from McGill Ford to Hudson Bend when he was "very young", so let's say he was about 10 for round numbers. Born 1875 +10 = 1885.

USGS 1896 Austin Quadrangle Map

As luck would have it, the USGS surveyed Austin and Travis County in 1895-1896 producing an excellent snap shot of that period in time. In that survey the USGS found that in Travis County, “nine-tenths of its inhabitants are found … east of the Balcones scarp, the Edwards Plateau country to the west being but sparsely populated." In 1896 Austin was but 57 years old; and for several of those years between 1842 - 1845 virtually deserted when Mexico invaded San Antonio and the seat of government was moved back to Washington on the Brazos. All to say, in Western Travis County, if in 1896 there were "roads", they may have been following older Indian trails. With Hudson Bend being in close proximity to Defeat Hollow and Comanche Peak, the route young Ed Milam took to get back to Hudson Bend from Austin may have been a route that say Penateka Comanches coming down the Colorado River could have used to enter Austin at Barton Springs, which Gunnar Brune’s Springs of Texas says was a gathering place for the Caddo, Tonkawa, Apache, and Comanche Indians.

The map shown here is a snippet from that USGS 1896 Austin Quadrangle map, marked with "points of interest" 1 through 7. In this blog I'll walk through the route young Ed Milam likely took on his way from Austin to Hudson Bend, expanding upon each of these points of interest.

Ed Milam's Journey

Ed Milam's journey would have started in down town Austin. When his father told him to head back home on Hudson Bend, he would likely have traveled down West Pecan; today's 6th street on his way to McGill Ford. As I've written about in another blog, McGill Ford appears to have crossed the Colorado River about where today's MoPac bridge crosses. This is point #1 on our map.

Perkins says there were two roads that ran from Austin to Bee Caves, the more popular being "the so-called Mountain Road" (p.136). That road started at Barton Springs so it's safe to assume that was the road taken by Ed Milam. Travel between Austin and Bee Caves was often an all day trip; "roads" were primitive, often "no more than paths cut through the trees". The road from Austin to Bee Caves is shown on the map as the segment from #1 to #3.

Santa Monica Springs ca. 1890s

Point #2 on the map is a point on Bee Caves Road that intersects with a the road running down from a ford on the Colorado River that is today part of Commons Ford Ranch Park. This road corresponds to today's Commons Ford Road. As I've written about in another blog, "Commons" appears to be a corruption of the name of the man that originally patented that land, a Mr. P.H. Cammans. As the map shows, just across the river was Santa Monica Springs, now under Lake Austin, but was back in the day a watering hole for the Comanche and other Indians. For more on these see previous blogs; Texas Ranger Dick Preece's Comanche Trail; Commons Ford Ranch Park.

Point #3 on the map corresponds to the point on Bee Caves Road that intersects with Ranch Road 620. Perkins says that in the vicinity of Bee Caves was a large Indian encampment (p.1). Near here too are a couple of flint "quarries": Flint Knob and Chalk Knob. So again, the roads are likely following the same trails Native Americans traveled. From here young Ed Milam would have turned off Bee Caves Road taking what is now RR 620.

Traveling northwest on RR 620 Ed Milam would have come to point #4, the intersection of a road that ran to Lohman's Ford or Crossing, some configuration of today's Lohmans Crossing Road in Lakeway, TX. Along that stretch of road is Flintrock Hill, named for the abundance of flint in the area. Like Flint Knob and Chalk Knob, Flintrock Hill was likely a place Native Americans went to procure flint; archeology of the Lakeway area shows Native Americans lived in this area since prehistoric times.

Continuing along today's RR 620 Ed Milan would have come to his home on Hudson Bend, point #5 on the map. Point #6 shows the location of today's Mansfield Dam, and point #7 is that part of the lake over which Comanche Peak (next to today's Oasis Restaurant) looks. This used to be known as Horseshoe Bend, and Marshall Ford crossed the Colorado here, remnants of which are reflected in today's Marshall Ford Road.

It was here along the Colorado River near Horseshoe Bend that Joel A. Harris, resident of Hudson Bend, my 3rd great-grandfather, had his run in with Indians (probably Comanche) giving today's Defeat Hollow, and probably Comanche Peak, its name. This story too is told in Perkin's book (p.70). And it was here on Hudson Bend that my great grandmother, Mintie Stanford, used to tell my mother that when she was a baby, her parents A.J. Stanford and Eliza Cherry (Harris) Stanford (daughter of Joel A. Harris) used to hide her under a washtub when the Indians would come.

Another reason for my interest in the route taken of young Ed Milam: my ancestors probably traveled this route a time or two themselves.

Travis County Clerk Records: Road Book

Below is a map from the Travis County Clerk Records: Road Book for Precinct 3, page 514. It shows the road from McGill ford hooking up with the road which runs to Oak Hill, but also to Burnet, Texas. Yes, there were multiple routes to Burnet, TX.

Map from 1898-1902 Travis County Clerk Records: Road Book Precinct 3

Footnotes, Reference

1896 Austin Quadrangle, USGS, copy available http://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/handle/1969.1/2893

Perkins, Elaine. A Hill Country Paradise? Travis County and Its Early Settlers, iUniverse publishing, 2012 Perkins, p.30 covers the Milam family.

Bartley Burris Milam (1820 - 1903) - Find A Grave Memorial, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=43144714

James Brice Milam (1850 - 1937) - Find A Grave Memorial, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=28566723

Edward Thurman Milam (1875 - 1968) - Find A Grave Memorial, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=39322419

Santa Monica Springs of the Colorado River, photograph, 1890; (texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth124007/: accessed February 3, 2017), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.


Travis County Clerk Records: Road Book Precinct 3
http://bit.ly/2uTnRd1