A Poem: Picnic at Spicewood Springs, 1880

This is a slightly expanded post of my history article for the May 2017 issue of the NWACA Newsletter.

Recently I reached out to the Austin History Center for old photos of people at Spicewood Springs. While they found no photos, they found a poem written in 1880 about a picnic at Spicewood Springs, written by Mrs. Martha Elizabeth (Hotchkiss) Whitten, part of her book Author's edition of Texas garlands. By way of context, she describes riding a steam locomotive ("fiery-tongued steed") from Austin to Spicewood Springs for a day of recreation. This was a service the railroad was promoting in the 1880s; Waters (AKA Watters) Park just north on Walnut Creek being a recreational spot developed by the railroad for this purpose. So while not a photo, in some ways the poem communicates the "picture" of people at the springs – and how they felt about the springs -- better than a still photo. For a brief overview of the author see [Willard] in references.

THE PICNIC.
AT SPICE-WOOD SPRING, EIGHT MILES FROM THE CITY, MAY 8, 1880.

Ah whither away
This bright sunny day?
Oh, where can the people be going?
They surely have found
Some "enchanted ground"
Where May's fragrant breezes are blowing.

The young and the old;
The timid and bold —
Brave lads and beautiful lasses;
Prim matrons are there
And maidens most fair
While little ones make up the masses.

Impatient they stand
With lunches at hand,
The train's onward motion awaiting;
Oh who could dare say
What bright hopes to-day
The hearts of this throng are elating!

And soon with all speed
On our fiery-tongued steed
Away from the city we're riding;
Over carpets of flowers
To fairy-like bowers
Where May's truant zephyrs are hiding.

On no fairer spot
Could it e'er be our lot,
To spend thus a picnic occasion;
Dame Nature with grace,
Has adorned this fair place    
'Till it seems like some field of Elysian.

Here, grand stately trees,
Are kissed by the breeze;
Their leaflets at "Bo-peep" are playing;
A curtain they've spun,
To shut out the sun,
And to shade us while here we are staying.

The spring bubbling o'er
Its nectar doth pour —
'Tis rippling, and sparkling, and laughing;
To its fount we hie
Our thirst to satisfy,
Ab its bright limpid waters we're quaffing.

The birds blithely sing
'Till the woodlands ring,
As they carol the beauties of May.
We join the glad song —
Its echoes prolong,
With hearts just as joyous and gay.

Even the slimy snakes
Have hid in the brakes,
Nor crawl from their covert away;
Contented to yield
The picnicers the field,
Through this beautiful sunshiny day.

Here are maidens shy,
With lovers near by
Whose blushing and radiant faces
Fond secrets would hide,
But love's crimson tide,
Is adding its beautiful graces.

Some are strolling away
Seeking garlands of May;
And the dark waving moss entwining
With flowers so fair —
A chaplet most rare,
O'er their dark glossy ringlets shining.

Here the hobby-horse
On its flying course,
Went 'round and 'round and 'round;
How nickels did slide
For a jolly good ride
As each leaped to his seat with a bound!

When ready to dine,
Oh sure it was fine,
We quickly improvised our seats.
Out of the stock
Of honey-comb rock
That graced those woodland retreats.

When tables were spread,
That all might be fed,
'Neath their load we feared they would groan;
With appetites keen,
Such feasting was seen,
As is only to picnicers known.

And this was the way
We spent that glad day —
That never-to-be-forgotten occasion;
Oh dear Spice-wood Spring!
How our memories cling
To thy scenes — like fields of Elysian.

About the Poem's Author

[Willard] gives an overview of Martha Elizabeth (Hotchkiss) Whitten's life and career as a writer and poet. Paraphrasing, Mrs. Whitten was born near Austin, Texas, 3rd October. 1842. She was the daughter of Hon. William S. and Hannah B. Hotchkiss. She entered school when she was five years old and was educated principally in the Collegiate Female Institute in Austin. At the age of fourteen years she was sent to McKenzie College. She began to write verses at the age of eleven, and at twelve and thirteen she contributed to the press. The death of her mother, before she was ten years old, saddened her life and gave to all her early poems an undertone of sorrow. Soon after entering McKenzie College she wrote her poem "Do They Miss Me at Home?" She was married when quite young, widowed at twenty-four. A teacher, she wrote on a variety of subjects and displayed great versatility in her poems. Her poems were collected in 1886 in book-form under the title of Texas Garlands and won appreciation in the literary world and success financially. 

 

Waters Park, AKA Watters Park

1895 map showing Spicewood Springs and Watters

As noted previously, Waters Park, or Watters Park as it was also known, was another destination for recreational day trips via the railroad. The Handbook of Texas says "The railroad began developing the area in June 1882, when it leased "Sumner's Grove, at the town of Waters" to establish a five-acre park and swimming pool. Town lots were to be sold on June 21, 1882. The railroad opened its picnic grounds at Waters in July 1882, and excursion trains from Austin ran on Sundays."

The Walnut Crossing Neighborhood Association has a great article on their website that talks about neighborhood history, including Waters Park. As noted in that article, in an advertisement in the June 14, 1882 edition of the Austin Daily Democratic Statesman, the railroad announced: "GRAND EXCURSION AND PICNIC to the town of
WATERS. Fifteen miles by rail from Austin, on the
NORTHWESTERN N.G. RAILWAY on Wednesday, June 21, 1882. Lots will be Sold on that Day–Terms Cash. Waters is on Walnut Creek, seven miles
from Round Rock, five from Pflugerville,
in one of the richest parts of Travis County. Trains leave Austin at 7:00 o’clock a.m. returning in the afternoon. Round trip tickets 59 cents only."


In terms of Native American Indian trails, there is a correlation between trails and railroads laid down in the time of steam engines: they both tend to follow the geographical line of least resistance where water is available. People need water; steam engines needed water. Waters Park was located in the area of the headwaters of Walnut Creek, a creek referenced in many stories of Indian encounters in early Austin; Fort Colorado was located along Walnut Creek for a reason! Waters Park, like Spicewood Springs, would most certainly have been a watering hole along what Frank Brown called The Trail Going North.

References

Author's edition of Texas garlands by Whitten, Martha E. (Martha Elizabeth Hotchkiss), published 1885. Online copy, donated by The Library of Congress, is available at https://archive.org/details/authorseditionof00whit

Willard, Frances Elizabeth. A woman of the century; fourteen hundred-seventy biographical sketches accompanied by portraits of leading American women in all walks of life. Published 1893.

Walnut Crossing Neighborhood Association. Article by Wayne Butler. http://wxna.org/the-neighborhood/

Grand Excursion and Picnic to Waters Park. Display ad 8 -- no title. (1882, Jun 14). The Austin Daily Statesman (1880-1889) Retrieved from https://www.austinlibrary.com:8443/login?url=http://www.austinlibrary.com:2400/docview/1635607040?accountid=7451 

Waters Park, Texas Historical Marker. http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=70924 

Waters Park, Handbook of Texas, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hlw10

Travis County Poor Farm

1898 Travis County Clerk Records: Road Book, Precinct 2

This is a post of my history article for the March 2017 issue of the NWACA Newsletter.

Back in the day, before the social safety nets to which we are accustomed today – food stamps, unemployment benefits, homeless shelters – there were “poor farms”. As Christy Costlow [1], Travis County Archivist, explains, “In the Constitution of 1869, the State of Texas directed the responsibility for the care of its indigent and poor residents to the counties. Aside from general provisions, there were no special statutes governing in detail relief for the poor. Based on the tradition of the almshouse, many county governments established poor farms, which provided the means for destitute inhabitants to live and work in an agrarian-based institutionalized setting. Those who came or were sent to poor farms, unless physically disabled, were expected to work the land to help support the institution.”

Michael Barnes at the Austin American Statesman has written about the Travis County Poor Farm that was north of Windsor Road in what is now Tarrytown, but it was not the first. The first Travis County Poor Farm was here, right next to our Northwest Hills neighborhood.

If you recall from my January 2017 article, George Washington Davis, an early settler of this area, received a land grant of 3,154 acres from the Republic of Texas for his service in the Texas War for Independence at the Battle of San Jacinto; a good chunk of our neighborhood being on that old land grant. In 1879 Travis County purchased about 303 acres from Davis to establish the first Travis County Poor Farm.

This is the same poor farm Wilbarger referenced in his classic Indian Depredations of Texas in describing the abduction of the Simpson children by Indians (December 2016 newsletter): "After the Indians had gone some six miles from Austin [they arrived at] Spicewood Springs, which is situated in the edge of the mountains, opposite where the poor farm of Travis County is located".

So where exactly was the poor farm? 1898 road maps, part of the Travis County Clerk’s records, shows the location and layout. The west side was bounded by today’s MoPac railroad (then the Int’l and Great Northern; hence the name for Great Northern Blvd!). The northern boundary was a continuation of today’s Spicewood Springs Road east of the tracks running all the way to today’s Burnet Road. This portion of Spicewood Springs Road was a combination of today’s Foster Lane with a short jog north up to what is probably today’s Anderson Lane. The eastern boundary was today’s Burnet Road (then called Upper Georgetown Road; no I-35 back then .. this was how you got to Georgetown). And the southern boundary was what appears to be today’s Greenlawn Pkwy; one map shows it running all the way from the western side of the farm, next to the tracks, to Burnet Road, just as it does today. Shoal Creek ran north to south through the farm, no doubt providing a source of water for crops.

Photos

from 1898 Travis County Roads Map

Snippet from 1885-86 General Directory of the City of Austin

Wilbarger referenced the "poor farm" in his classic Indian Depredations of Texas

References, Notes

[1] Thanks to Christy Costlow, Travis County Archivist, for help in researching this article. Map shown is from 1898 Travis County Clerk Records: Road Book, Precinct 2. Purchase of land for poor farm is in Travis County Clerk Records: Commissioners Court Minutes D, p 218.

Spicewood Springs, George W. Davis, Travis County Poor Farm

This is another in a series of working notes looking forward to preserve and commemorate (e.g. through a historical marker) the prehistory and history of Spicewood Springs -- the springs and community that grew up around the springs -- as part of the Austin Oaks PUD / development / zoning / Austin Oaks Charrette process that is going on. If you click on the label "Spicewood Springs and the Austin Oaks PUD" in the right hand margin you'll see other posts from this series, or related to the topics in this series.

 

George W. Davis

One of the first settlers around Spicewood Springs was George Washington Davis (ca. 1809-1884). And the Austin Oaks land is part of the original grant of 3,154 acres for his service to the Republic of Texas during the Texas Revolution (Battle of San Jacinto).

We've actually got a couple of history markers east of Shoal Creek relating to the George W. Davis. One deals with the fact that his land was also the site of the quarry from which limestone was taken for the 1853 Texas Capitol; this spot is today's Northwest Park:
https://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=95577

The other marker is the Davis Cemetery:
https://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=26778

Here's a couple of maps. The first a snippet from the 1880 GLO map of landowners showing Spicewood Springs (purple dot), Spicewood Springs creek that runs down into the Austin Oaks property, across the tracks and into Shoal Creek (green), and Davis' grant (outlined in yellow)

The second map is using TCAD's map search facility to get a better look at George W. Davis' property boundary; Spicewood Springs Road is roughly the northern boundary on this old Republic of Texas Land Grant.

So Austin Oaks is on land granted to a participant of the Battle of San Jacinto by the Republic of Texas for services rendered in the Texas War for Independence. That would sound good on a marker!

 

Travis County Poor Farm

There's more though. With help from folks at the Travis County Historical Commission we've determined that just across the tracks from Spicewood Springs, still part of Davis' property, was what appears to be Travis County's first "Poor Farm", which best we can tell from county records was in operation from about 1879-1903 (give or take)[1]. Michael Barnes at the Austin American has written about the Poor Farm that was down around Windsor, but it's looking like the Spicewood Springs community had the original. The county road map to the left (1898-1902) shows the location of the "County Farm" with respect Spicewood Springs. The western boundary was Jollyville Road (today's Balcones Drive / MoPac access road); eastern boundary old Georgetown Road (today's Burnet Road); norther boundary was Spicewood Springs Road east of the rail road (today's Foster Lane turning into Anderson Lane further east).


Click here to view Michael Barnes article

Click here for previous post with more on the Poor Farm 

Footnotes

[1] Travis County Clerk Records: Commissioners Court Minutes D, p 218, describes the purchase by Travis County of 303 acres for the Poor Farm from the headright of G.W. Davis in 1879. Available on Portal to Texas History. The western and eastern boundaries of the Poor Farm are shown on the the Travis County Clerk Records: Road Book Precinct 2, maps for Jollyville Road & Upper Georgetown Road (today's Burnet Road). This location of the Poor Farm is the one referenced in Wilbarger’s Indian Depredations of Texas, p. 140, saying Spicewood Springs was "opposite where the poor farm of Travis county is located". 

Spicewood Springs, Travis County Road Books

This is another in a series of working notes looking forward to preserve and commemorate (e.g. through a historical marker) the prehistory and history of Spicewood Springs -- the springs and community that grew up around the springs -- as part of the Austin Oaks PUD / development / zoning / Austin Oaks Charrette process that is going on. 

Travis County Clerk records has road books, field notes and plats of county roads in Travis County commissioner's precincts 1-4 from 1898 to 1902, showing starting point, directions and lengths of road, and landmarks. Spicewood Springs is in Precinct 2 book. Here's some of interest relating to Spicewood Springs.

To get a good look at the maps, click on the map, save it, then open with image viewing software that lets you zoom in.

Link to Portal to Texas History ..

Jollyville Road Map

Here's the Jollyville Road map; lots of interesting stuff on this map. 

 

Spicewood Springs Creek

Shows the main spring for Spicewood Spring (blue circle); but also notice "Spice Wood Spr. Branch" (sic) which flows from the springs, crosses Spicewood Springs Road (onto Austin Oaks property) the flows across (under) the rail tracks, eventually emptying in Shoal Creek. What is not shown on the map is the additional spring around along today's Woodhollow that also empties into the creek on Austin Oaks property.

Notice also that Spicewood Springs continues across the rail tracks. At first glance one might think this is Anderson Lane today (I did at first). It's actually today's Foster Lane. And today you can follow the creek (concreted in) north of Foster Ln, then dipping south before entering Shoal Creek. Other maps seem to indicate that at some point the road made a sharp turn north, then east again (today's Anderson Lane) and continued on past the Old Georgetown Road (today's Burnet Rd .. not one discussed below).

 

County Poor Farm

Notice the County Farm across from Spicewood Springs; this is the County Poor Farm .. Wilbarger (Indian Depredations) mentioned as being here (it was later down around Windsor). This appears it may have been the first, original location. So in use here ca. 1879-1908. Mail from Travis County Archivist

There *should* be a mention of any property purchase or lease for the Poor Farm in the Commissioners Court minutes (although there’s no guarantee, I’m not sure how thorough record-keeping was back then), and I am slowly working my way through them (I’m currently in 1884). It appears the Poor Farm moved from the Spicewood Springs location in 1908 (when the land was sold), so the question is when it moved there.  So far, I’ve found the following references that may be helpful (some are only references to the drawing of roads in the area, not necessarily the poor farm itself). I’ll keep looking and send any additional info your way:

 Original Poor Farm property, 1879 (303 acres): https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth662101/m1/224/zoom/?resolution=4&lat=2055&lon=3435

o   (deed E pg. 8, describes the property as east of Colorado, 5 mi. north of Austin): https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth746171/m1/38/?q=travis%20county%20deed%20e

·         Road from Lower Georgetown to Spicewood Springs proposed and drawn, 1879: https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth662101/m1/232/zoom/?resolution=4&lat=3521.642961430998&lon=3053.9450146272475

·         Upper Georgetown and Spicewood Springs Roads, 1880: https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth662101/m1/305/zoom/?resolution=4&lat=5382&lon=2248

·         Reference to Poor Farm and Bull Creek Road, 1881: https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth662101/m1/356/zoom/?resolution=3&lat=2098&lon=3204

·         1883 description of Poor Farm references Upper Georgetown and Bull Creek roads: https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth662101/m1/356/zoom/?resolution=4&lat=3464.7767729723632&lon=3097.8446454055274  

 

Burnet Road

Notice Burnet Road on this map; this was 2222 .. other maps show "Burnet Road" running all the way to four point, on beyond to Burnet. Other old maps show 2222 as BULL CREEK ROAD .. those two roads (Bull Creek and Burnet) have a twisted history in Austin ! Here's an old section of BULL CREEK ROAD parallel to 2222 :
https://goo.gl/maps/YSgiYENe5Ap

And here's OLD BURNET ROAD just where it went under LAKE TRAVIS .. the BURNET ROAD the map here would have gone west out to Four Points and beyond, hooking up w/ this OLD BURNET ROAD which then works its way to BURNET, TX .. a route more down in the canyon area, as opposed to the 183ish route up on the prairie going through LEANDER which we generally use today (old SH 29)
https://goo.gl/maps/EiU9cdv13X72

 

McCall Springs?

I read this article on a neighborhood website years ago; originally written in 1954
https://allandaleneighbor.com/2012/04/the-history-of-shoal-creek.html

One of the things that really caught my attention was this one sentence

"One of the numerous Indian burial mounds along the creek is near the old McCall Spring just west of the street now called Balcones Trail. It is about seven feet high and covered over with rock shale."

I had looked all over the place for "McCall Spring" with no luck. Then on this map I one J.D. McCall, just south of Spicewood Springs, with residence or land just west the old Jollyville Road, AKA Balcones Trail, AKA Balconies Drive, AKA MoPac access road :)

MoPac impact archeology report mentions other sites along the escarpment at springs -- one near Far West and MoPac -- although no mention of a burial .. but I'd say the McCall spring she had in mind was right in there.

 

Bull Creek & Spicewood Springs Road Map

This is another map featuring Spicewood Springs Road. Couple of things worth noting ..

First, what is today the MoPac Service Rd was Jollyville Road. Remnants of Jollyville Road remain in the Northwest Hills neighborhood, south of 360 but come to a halt at 360, then resume on the north side running parallel to Research Blvd. Sections of Balconies Drive used to be called Balconies Trail, and before that Jollyville Road. Yes, there was a Jollyville :-) If you are looking for the old Jollyville (as opposed to the newer shown on Google maps) look for the Jollyville Cemetery .. you can move the town on a map, its tougher to move the cemetery
https://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=28805
https://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=25504

Another thing to note. What we call today Old Spicewood Springs Road, was on this map called Bull Creek Road. Bull Creek Rd has a murky past ;-) 2222 was apparently also once called Bull Creek Rd .. get on Google Maps sometime and search "Old Bull Creek Rd" .. you'll see a segment that runs parallel to 2222.

 

Upper Georgetown Road Map

This map is labeled the "Upper Georgetown Road Map"; the old Georgetown Road was the road that ran to Georgetown from Austin. This is today's Burnet Road.

Notice first, Spicewood Springs Road runs all the way east to and past what is now Burnet Road. Notice below it, the County Poor Farm; so from the map above we know the County Poor Farm ran from just across the tracks at Spicewood Springs, all the way east to today's Burnet Road.

Notice also north of Spicewood Springs Road there is an Oran Roberts. He was the Governor of Texas from 1879 to 1883. His land ran all the way over to the tracks as well. The Austin Weekly Statesman newspaper from Thursday, August 9, 1883, reported an update on a "young bandit" that had been reported in the area. The newspaper stated "Ex-Gov. Roberts owns a large farm in the neighborhood of Spicewood Springs" which had apparently been a target of the bandit. So his farm was north of the Spicewood Springs.

To better pin-point where Gov. Oran Roberts land was at, here's a snippet from a Travis County Roads 1898-1902 map (may be available at from the Travis County Clerk?). For reference, in orange are Jollyville Road, Spicewood Springs, Travis County Poor Farm, Georgetown Road (today's Burnet Rd). Robert's farm is in yellow, so Jollyville Road on the west, Burnet Rd on the east.

Tracing native trails across Austin

This is a post of an article that ran in the Austin American Statesman, October 24, 2015, by Michael Barnes, about work I've done on old Indian trails in and around Austin, Texas. I've added some additional side-bar photos beyond what was feasible in original article. Some additional footnotes added as well.

Michael's article wound up in his latest book, Indelible Austin volume II, 2018

Tracing native trails across Austin

USGS 1896 map with old Indian trails in and around Austin

You’ve heard of the butterfly whose wingbeats, ultimately, started a hurricane? What about the ant whose tiny track became a freeway?

Like humans — and water, for that matter — land insects tend to follow the path of least resistance. Their tracks are sometimes followed by small mammals, then beaten wider and deeper by larger mammals, and ultimately blazed by humans with their lumbering livestock.
During their “entrada” into Texas, Spanish explorers retraced established American Indian trails. Their “caminos,” in turn, were followed by Anglo-Americans, African-Americans, German-Americans and other settlers.

These trails almost always became roads, and some were eventually converted into railroads or freeways. Now, modern highways often bypass the ancient tracks and trails because, with engineering and construction advances, they can — and often should — preserve what’s there. Early railroads, however, almost always followed those paths of least resistance whenever possible.

Richard Denney, an avocational historian of uncommon diligence, has closely studied Austin’s earliest byways.

“Among history nuts, there are some who are particularly fascinated with old trails,” Denney says. “There is actually a name these people sometimes call themselves: ‘rut nuts.’”

Swales and ruts are the physical remains of old trails.

The transient nature of Denney’s upbringing in a military family made him all the more keen to dig into the history of Austin when he settled in the area in 1972. He also was curious about his family’s roots here — his mother’s relatives go back to pre-Civil War Central Texas in little towns such as Smithwick, Liberty Hill, Briggs and Florence.

"Defeat Hollow near the Oasis on Lake Travis was named for an encounter between one of my ancestors, Joel Harris, an early settler on Hudson’s Bend, and Indians, probably Comanches, hence the source for Comanche Peak next to the Oasis,” Denney says. “I have another ancestor — a great-great-grandmother — whose burial location was once lost to the family’s collective memory. Turns out, she was buried right here in Austin as a Confederate widow in the Texas State Cemetery.”

There’s no field guide to the native trails of Austin. Yet Denney has assembled considerable data from a number of sources and synthesized them into a rough map. First clue: The multipronged El Camino Real de los Tejas of the Spanish period, which is well-documented, likely followed some of those paths created by Indians.

Frank Brown’s unpublished “Annals of Travis County and the City of Austin: From the Earliest Times to the Close of 1875” — available in typescript at the Austin History Center and other libraries — describes a trail used by American Indians running south to north in Austin, which Brown called, naturally, the “Trail Going North,” adding that “this trail was found here by the first white explorers that visited the site now occupied by the capital city.”

So where was the Trail Going North? South of the river, it looks to follow South Congress Avenue. North, it predicts the path of MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) and other major modern roads.

Then there’s the Mount Bonnell Trail to the northwest.

Denney says that Julia Lee Sinks, author and historian, was an early settler who arrived in 1840. She lived on West Pecan Street — now West Sixth Street — and wrote of “the beaten track of the Indians into town from the pass of Mount Bonnell.”

Bigfoot Wallace, a famous Texas Ranger, Denney says, lived in the rock shelter on Mount Bonnell for a period and recalled it being “right on the old Indian trail leading down to Austin.”

Denney emphasizes that these two corridors were used by Indians not just for raids but also for trade in such things as flintrock.

More hints physical and historical

1936 historical marker for Fort Colorado

Other clues help trace the trails: Forts such as Fort Colorado — first put down at the mouth of Walnut Creek in the 1830s [1], then moved north to a spot near present-day Martin Luther King Boulevard and Webberville Road — were sited to allow soldiers to intercept the movement of Indians. Also, river fords, such as the one across the Colorado at Shoal Creek, would have been shared by Indians. Last, the recorded locations of interactions of settlers and Indians can tell us a lot.

Newspaper article from 1844 about Simpson children

“Here’s one of my favorites: In 1842 [2], early Austin suffered what one might call the ‘Yogurt Shop Murders’ of its day,” Denney says. “A Mrs. Simpson, living on West Pecan about three blocks west of Congress, had two children — a daughter 14, a son, 12 — abducted by Indians while the children were in the adjacent valley (Shoal Creek). The path of the Indians and the abducted children took them from Sixth Street to Mount Bonnell, where they eluded the pursuit of an Austin posse, and finally to Spicewood Springs near the intersection of what is now MoPac and Spicewood Springs Road.”

The Simpson girl was killed at Spicewood Springs, but the boy, who was later ransomed, provided firsthand details on the trail taken.

De Cordova's 1856 Map of Texas showing road to Hamilton Valley.

In 1853, the Travis County courts designated certain pre-existing roads as “public highways” in order to assign responsibility for their maintenance. One such road ran from Austin to “Hamilton Valley,” which is today Burnet. The road as it left Austin was in part described as “continuing up the foot of the mountains with the Indian trail.”

That now roughly comports with U.S. 183 to the northern suburbs.

 

 

The domain of the Comanches

The 1894-1896 U.S. Geological Survey provides another piece of evidence: The area west of Shoal Creek was considered the domain of the Comanches. And it’s likely some roads in existence as early as 1894 reflected trails already in place. This was especially true west of the Balcones Escarpment. The USGS survey confirmed 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.”

So roads out west, way off the original Austin grid, likely had belonged to Indians.

Coleman Springs near old Fort Colorado

Gunnar Brune’s “Major and Historical Springs of Texas” and “Springs of Texas ” identify springs in Travis County known to have been used by Indians. Archaeology and geology provide the locations of sources of flint — or chert — known to have been valued by Indians, so trails leading to the Bee Cave area, as well as to Brushy Creek and the Georgetown region, probably predate European settlement.

Possible "Indian Marker Tree" on MoPac

“In 2014, the Texas Historic Tree Coalition came to Austin to look at what might be — and I stress ‘might be’ — what are called Indian marker trees,” Denney says. “These are trees culturally modified by Indians here in Austin to mark trails or otherwise significant locations.”

Some trees might have been markers at Camp Mabry, which sits at the crossroad of two trails: Frank Brown’s “Trail Going North” and the trail from Mount Bonnell into Austin.

“One such tree located on MoPac again interestingly sits at the ‘Y’ in two trails,” Denney says. “Brown’s Trail and what I call the Hamilton Valley Trail, borrowing the name used by the Travis County courts and old maps before 1858, when Hamilton Valley was renamed Burnet.”

Signal Hill near Leander, Texas

Several hills in Travis and Williamson counties are called “Pilot Knob,” a name given to navigational landmarks. The two in Travis both lie on Brown’s Trail, one south of Austin near the airport, one north off Loop 1 near the old Merrilltown Cemetery. The one south by Austin-Bergstrom International Airport would have been a navigational aid for the Camino Real. Travis County also has two “Signal Hills,”a name often given to rises historically associated with Indian smoke signaling or signal fires.

Some of Denney’s Indian, Spanish and settler trails were were later used to drive cattle to market — including the famous Chisholm Trail, which came through Austin. These lines were later picked up by Texas railroad and highway builders.

Those chapters, however, must wait for other articles here.

Footnotes

[1] While alternate locations have been cited (e.g. McGhee's Austin's Montopolis Neighborhood) historical and even archaeological evidence indicates its location near present-day Martin Luther King Boulevard and Webberville Road.
[2] 1842 has been reported by some authors, but probably happened in 1844 given the Congress of the Republic of Texas passed a resolution to appropriate a ransom that same year.

Frank Brown's "Trail Going North" (through Austin)

Austin sits on the Camino Real de los Tejas, one of the earliest branches of the Camino Real (McGraw et.al, 1991), a prehistoric trade route – later utilized and named by the Spanish – connecting Mexico in the south with the Tejas Indians of east Texas and Louisiana. From San Antonio to Austin, El Camino Real de los Tejas is a trail that hugs the Balcones Escarpment from spring to spring: San Pedro, Comal, San Marcos, Manchaca.

Coming into Austin from the south along what is now Old San Antonio Road, the Camino Real "continued up present South Congress Avenue in Austin to Pleasant Hill School" (McGraw et.al, 1991, p. 187). At the point the trail turned east heading to east Texas and Louisiana, the home of the Tejas Indians.

But if one were not headed to east Texas (the Spanish were focused on east Texas to thwart French settlement there) but rather wanted to go north, e.g. to reach valued Georgetown flint and further north the Indian villages at Waco, a logical extension of the  El Camino Real de los Tejas would be to continue following the Balcones Escarpment northward, just as it had done from San Antonio, through New Braunfels, San Marcos, Buda and into Austin.

That trail is what Frank Brown coined the "Trail Going North". Once in Austin, rather than veering east to Nacogdoches, that trail continued north hugging the Balcones Escarpment and its' springs: Barton, Cold, Eddy, Seiders, Spicewood, and further north Salado and Waco Springs.

Frank Brown, an early settler in Austin, records in his Annals of Travis Country and Austin (F.Brown, chapter 3, p. 3):

• “Trail Going North. From time out of mind there was a trail running north from the Rio Grande by way of the present towns of San Antonio, New Braunfels and San Marcos, crossing the Colorado at the ford near the mouth of Shoal Creek .. This trail was found here by the first white explorers that visited the site now occupied by  the capital city .. Here, also, the buffalo crossed, going south to north, according to  the season. The ford at the mouth of Shoal Creek has a rock bottom, is comparatively smooth and shallow; and could always be crossed with safety when  the river was at all fordable. This crossing is at the foot of the mountains, on a direct course north. The main line of travel from the Rio Grande to Red River, South  to north, was by this route. The old trail went up the valley of Shoal Creek, passing out above and near the residence of the late Gov. Pease; thence on the nearly level  plateau between the creek and the mountains, near the foot of the hills, almost one  north to the Indian village at Waco and beyond.”

The early history of Austin is replete with stories of Waco Indians, this trail being the logical route they would have taken to reach Austin. If indeed "Hueco Springs", four miles north of New Braunfels is named after the Waco Indians (distinct from those in Waco, Texas) that frequented there, this trail would have been the logical route to and from Waco, Texas. Comanches likewise would have used this trail to raid or trade with tribes to the north, or enroute to destinations like Torreys' trading post, site of the Tehuacana Creek councils between Comanches and the Republic of Texas.

And while Brown does not mention them explicitly, The Council Oaks, a grove of oak trees that served as a meeting place for Comanche and Tonkawa tribes, must surely have been on this trail. The Council Oaks were on the north bank of the Colorado, near the Shoal Creek crossing.

The only remaining oak of this grove is Austin’s famous Treaty Oak. Mrs. Walter H. Caldwell, Treaty Oaks's owner prior to purchase by the City of Austin, said  "The road, which is now the street in front of the Caldwell home, was in the olden days the only open road to the river and up through the hills. It was then know as Pecan Road, and it passed within a short distance of the famous tree"(The Hondo Anvil Herald, Hondo, TX, May 25, 1928)

The historical marker at the foot of Treaty Oak reads:

The Caldwell Treaty Oak Park 

Estimated to have been a majestic tree of about 100 years when Columbus first landed on

North American shores, this live oak tree has been pronounced the most perfect specimen of a tree in North America, and its picture hangs in the Hall of Fame of Forestry at Washington.

Formerly standing as the center of a group of trees called "The Council Oaks," this tree takes its name from its role in the history of the Lone Star State. Stephen F. Austin is reputed to have signed the first boundary line agreement between Indians and whites under the canopy of its branches; battles and important conferences have been planned, pacts signed, and feasts and religious ceremonies celebrated in its shade.

The Treaty Oak was purchased by the City of Austin in 1937 to stand as a living and fitting symbol of the mighty state it has watched develop.

Treaty Oak, 1941. Retrieved from Portal to Texas History.

The map below shows the general route through Austin using Brown's landmarks. Notice that the route between Pleasant Hill Elementary School and the Shoal Creek crossing of the Colorado, is essentially South Congress.



The path of the trail "passing out above and near the residence of the late Gov. Pease" may have tracked closely with today's Windsor Road. The map snippet below (Revised Map of Austin, Texas, 1885) shows Windsor as a trail passing by the Pease Mansion.

Austin map from 1885. Windsor Road (then Windsor Ave.) shown passing by the Pease Mansion

Proposed rezoning of Austin Oaks to a PUD, My Letter to the City's Case Manager

I’m writing in reference to the Austin Oaks PUD rezoning request. I have lived in the area, about a mile from Spicewood Springs, for about 25 years, my kids all growing up in this neighborhood. Over the years I became interested in the history of this area, and in particular Spicewood Springs. My understanding was that the initial rezoning request was a bit sparse on the history of Spicewood Springs. I wrote several e-mails to your predecessor, Lee Heckman. Upon hearing you had taken over his previous position I decided to write you as well and recap the historic significance of Spicewood Springs. 

Here’s a recap of what I know of the prehistory and history of the Spicewood Springs area, a good chunk of which is included in the Austin Oaks PUD rezoning request.

Spicewood Springs has been a destination for travelers and homesteaders since prehistory. Native Americans, early Texas pioneers and homesteaders, even a Texas Governor have called this area home. As with so many old communities – Jollyville, Fiskville, Duval, McNeil, Merrilltown, Montopolis, Saint Elmo, Sprinkle, Anderson Mill, all which we largely only recognize now as street names -- before Spicewood Springs was absorbed into Austin it was a community peoples called home, with a separate and individual identity. I see the neighborhood organizations that are in discussion with Austin Oaks about the proposed rezoning as today’s homesteaders in that continuum of history and prehistory of this place, simply wanting to preserve the character of what has drawn people here since prehistory.

Springs of Texas

Gunnar Brune is an author and has in the past served as an advisor to the TX Water Development Board.

Spicewood Springs is listed in Gunnar Brune’s Springs of Texas (Brune, Gunnar, Volume 1, Texas A&M University Press, 2002). About Spicewood Springs Gunnar says they were “a stop on an old Indian trail [and] Later they provided water for one of the first schools in Travis County”. The prehistoric utilization of the springs by Indians is both archaeologically and historically confirmed. And more on the school shortly.

Brune provides discharge rates for years between 1940-1980, and says “large fish and crawfish live in the pools, amid water cress, ferns and elephant ears .. Deer came here for water in dry periods until about 1975, when the surrounding area was covered with apartment and office buildings and superhighways”. It would be interesting to see how much more that habitat has degraded since Brune’s report.

Austin Prehistory

As you may be aware, archeological sites are identified given a unique ID and  recorded in the Texas Archeological Sites Atlas. Travis County sites are tagged "TV". In the the redacted report I've seen (Intensive Archaeological Survey of the MoPac Improvement Project, 2013) there are at least two sites that appear to be in the Austin Oaks rezoning area, these are:

·        41TV61 "was recorded [initially in 1959] as a prehistoric site located on the southwest corner of Spicewood Springs Road and MOPAC .. .. the site was impacted by commercial development in 1973 .. most of the site has since been destroyed by commercial development.."

·        The other is 41TV61.2. The 2013 report quotes earlier reports from 1973 for this second site which say "..construction plans call for the intersection of two streets, Executive Center and Wood Hollow to be in about the center of the site ..".

My understanding from talking with one of the archaeologists who wrote the report is that the 2013 survey was done as "catch-up" because of the poor job done in preserving archeological sites when MoPac was developed in the first place, but also reevaluated the state of some previously known sites that were a bit out of the MOPAC ROW (e.g. these sites).

The two sites mentioned are from my understanding “archaic” (6000 BC - 750 AD) and both in the proposed Austin Oaks rezoning area. The commercial development mentioned is I presume the original Austin Oaks development. Hopefully we can prevent further degradation of these and most likely other sites that have not yet been surveyed.

1839 The “Trail Going North” at the birth of Austin

As Brune notes Spicewood Springs was on a stop on an old Indian trail. There were probably several, but one was what Frank Brown called “The Trail Going North”. One of the first histories of early Austin is Frank Brown’s Annals of Travis County and of the City of Austin from the Earliest Times to the Close of 1875. Brown came to Austin in 1846 and served as county clerk of Travis County from about 1856-62. His book provides firsthand observation and stories collected from “old timers” in Austin. Brown described a trail that ran by Spicewood Springs:

·        “This trail was found here by the first white explorers that visited the site now occupied by the capital city … The old trail went up the valley of Shoal Creek, passing out above and near the residence of the late Gov. Pease; thence on the nearly level plateau between the creek [Shoal] and the mountains, near the foot of the hills, almost one north to the Indian village at Waco and beyond..”

About 1839 the wagon train of John Webster, comprised of some 30 some men, women and children would have utilized Spicewood Springs as a resting spot while travelling from Austin to Burnet County. After encountering Comanches in Burnet County, they turned around hoping to make it back to Austin, but were caught in open ground near Leander. Everyone was massacred except for a few who were taken hostage.

1844 Spicewood Springs and the Abduction of the Simpson Children

In 1844 (1842 has been reported by some authors, but probably happened in 1844 given the Congress of the Republic of Texas passed a resolution to appropriate a ransom that same year) early Austin suffered what one might call the “Yogurt Shop Murders” of its day. A Mrs. Simpson living West Pecan (6th), about three blocks west of Congress, had two children – a daughter 14, a son 12—abducted by Indians while the children were in the adjacent “valley” (the valley was Shoal Creek; names of the children vary by source, the daughter sometimes referred to as Emma, the son Tommie or Thomas. The names used in association with Congress’ approval of the ransom were Jane and William).

The Indians “seized the children, mounted their horses and made off for the mountains .. going in the direction of Mt. Bonnell” (Indian Depredations in Texas, 1889). A posse of citizens from Austin was raised and gave pursuit, but lost the trail at Mt. Bonnell. After alluding capture, the Indians rested at Spicewood Springs where the girl was killed and scalped. The boy was later ransomed and returned to his mother and recounted the story at Spicewood Springs. Local citizens were led by the boy to the spot at Spicewood Springs where his sister had been killed and identified her remains. No mention I’m aware of documents what happened to her remains, and they may well have been buried at Spicewood Springs (just as the Webster massacre victims were interred in a common grave at the sight of their death in present day Leander).

This incident was understandably one of the defining moments in the relationships between the citizens of the young city of Austin and the Native Americans that still claimed the area as their own. To illustrate the impact of this incident on Austin at the time, this story was told and retold in Texas history classics such as Wilbarger’s Indian Depredations of Texas, Jenkin’s Recollections of Early Texas, John Brown’s Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas, Winfrey and Day’s Texas Indians Papers. The story still captures the imagination of modern Texas historians, evidenced by republications such as Gregory and Susan Michno’s A Fate Worse than Death, and Jeff Kerr’s The Republic of Austin.

Jeff Kerr is a doctor living here in NW Hills and has written three books on Austin history. Jeff and I approached Austin Oaks several years back asking if they would be interested in having a historical marker. Austin Oaks said they would not permit any history markers on their property. At the time I thought this very strange. This was prior to the rezoning request. It’s pretty obvious in retrospect they viewed a historical marker as detrimental to rezoning.

Spicewood Springs as Landmark: Roads in 1853, Rails in 1871

As Austin grew, old Indian trails became roads. The section of Brown’s old Indian trail from about Windsor north we now call MOPAC. Spicewood Springs was important enough to use as a navigation point in early Austin.

In 1853 Travis County courts were designating certain roads as “public highways” for purposes of assigning ownership for maintenance. One road designated as a public highway was the road from Austin to “Hamilton Valley” which is today Burnet, TX. The Travis County court used Seider Springs and Spicewood Springs as part of the specification for that road, referring to the route as part of an “Indian trail”, indeed the same trail the Webster part had taken (History of Travis County and Austin, p 268).

And not just roads, but railroads. The Weekly Democratic Statesman, Thursday, September 21, 1871 reported "The surveying party who are locating the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad, camped at Spicewood creek (sic), five miles from Austin, last night. They have already completed the survey to within three miles from that point."

Spicewood Springs as the camp for the rail crew bringing the railroad to Austin. Pretty historic.

1866 Esperanza School and Spicewood Springs

As noted in the History of Travis County and Austin (Barkley, 1963), schools and churches were the centers of communities during the regime of the Texas Republic and early statehood, and the Esperanza School, “A log cabin served as the first school for this part of northwestern Travis County near Spicewood Springs from about 1866 to about 1873”. That log cabin still exists, and is located in Zilker Park, but it’s original location was near what is now Spicewood Springs Road and MOPAC. The Texas Historical Commission historical marker reads:

·        Esperanza School Building. One of earliest one-room rural schoolhouse in Travis County, this cabin was built on property of Richard McKenzie in 1866. It was known as Esperanza School and served children from Neighboring farms in the period before public education. In 1893 when a larger Esperanza School was built at another site this original log structure was put to other uses.. (Original site of this cabin was in the NW quadrant of the intersection of Spicewood Springs Rd. and Mopac Blvd.)

Spicewood Springs As a Community In the News

As evidenced by the need for a school (Esperanza School), there was apparently a community that began to emerge around the springs with news of everyday events appearing in newspapers

·        Texas State Gazette, on Saturday, April 27, 1850 reported "At the Spice-wood Springs (sic) .. there have occurred, within the last few days, several sudden deaths, from the effects of a disease which has baffled medical skill .."

·        The Weekly Democratic Statesman, Thursday, September 21, 1871 reported "A large number of immigrants have been encamped about five miles north of the city, on Spicewood creek (sic), for several days". Wouldn't you love to know more about what that was all about?!

·        The Thursday, December 31, 1874 edition of the Weekly Democratic Statesman reported “Big Potato. - Mr. George W. Walling, living near Spicewood Springs in this county, has brought us a specimen of what kind of potatoes can be grown in our soil. The one shown us weighs six and a half pounds .."

·        Among prominent residences of the community around Spicewood Springs was O.M. Roberts, Governor of Texas from 1878-83. The Austin Weekly Statesman newspaper from Thursday, August 9, 1883, reported an update on a "young bandit" that had been reported in the area. The newspaper stated "Ex-Gov. Roberts owns a large farm in the neighborhood of Spicewood Springs" which had apparently been a target of the bandit.

·        Austin Weekly Statesman Thursday, November 10, 1887 edition reported a "corrected list of public teachers of [Travis] county". Miss Bettie Peel being the teacher for Spicewood Springs

·        Austin Weekly Statesman Thursday, July 26, 1888 edition of the paper reported status on various county schools: “District No. 7 - Spicewood Springs" was up to a whopping 48 children.

·        Austin Weekly Statesman Thursday, September 6, 1888, the paper reported a horse stolen: "Mr. John Miles, living at Luling, had a horse stolen from his camp near Spicewood Springs, early Saturday morning."

A historical take-away from stories like this is that Spicewood Springs was a separate, unique community, with its own identity, with residents and news distinct from Austin, and historically important to recognize as such.

1895 USGS Survey of Austin

The Geologic Atlas of the United States is a set of 227 folios published by the U.S. Geological Survey between 1894 and 1945. Austin / Travis County was lucky enough to be one of the cities surveyed preserving forever a look at an Austin that was (USGS Geologic Atlas of the United States, Austin, Texas, Folio #76).

While published in 1902, the survey was actually done in the years 1895-96, when Austin was only 56 years old. Many of the small communities, place names and roads from that period no longer exist, or have lost their separate identities as they were swallowed by the larger urbanization of Austin.

That Spicewood Springs and the community that was growing up around it were included on this historical snapshot of Austin to me speaks to their historical significance. Not even Barton Springs of all places was called out on this map!

2014 Indian Marker Trees

As I understand it, one of the “environmental” impacts of the Austin Oaks rezoning is the loss of some 15 heritage trees (>24” diameter) and 45% of the protected trees (19” – 24”diameter). Let me say that there is the possibility that it is not just an environmental loss, but has the potential for being a historic loss as well.

For several years I’ve been working with the Texas Historical Tree Coalition (THTC), based out of Dallas on evaluating several trees up and down the MOPAC corridor (remember this is Brown’s old “Indian Trail Going North”), including trees on Camp Mabry, a tree in my neighborhood near Far West and West Rim, a tree on Mopac Service Rd, near the tracks just south of 183, and yes, Spicewood Springs. Several of these trees are potentially what are called “Indian Marker Trees”, trees “culturally modified” by probably Comanche as sign posts marking the spot of, or direction to, important resources (water, crossings, trails, camps, etc.).

In April of 2014, in conjunction with the Society of American Archeology which was held in Austin, I did a tour for an elder for the Comanche nation, along with an archeologist here in Austin, and several reps from the THTC of several of these trees. One of the spots we visited was Spicewood Springs.

Then in August of 2014 a team from THTC spent the day in Austin visiting and doing further inspection and measurement of the trees. As a prerequisite to inspection of the trees by the team, THTC gets permission from the land owners. Of all the locations for which the team requested permission – including Camp Mabry, which actually provided us with two of their archeologist/historians to help out – Austin Oaks was the only one that said they didn’t want THTC to inspect their trees for historical relevance as possible Indian Marker Trees! As with the history marker, I was perplexed as to why they would not want someone to determine if they might possibly own a rare, historically significant Indian Marker Tree. Once I learned about the intent to pursue rezoning, it made perfect sense. Having historic trees on the property would have been detrimental to the rezoning.

Are there IMT’s on the Austin Oaks property? I don’t know. But certainly cutting down heritage and protected trees runs the risk that we further obliterate the history of Spicewood Springs.

Think about Austin’s Treaty Oak. Stephen F. Austin, the “father of Texas,” negotiated a boundary treaty with Indians under that oak. But Treaty Oak was just one of a grove of 24+ trees known as the Comanche Council Oaks. Wouldn’t it be grand to have that grove of oaks still in the city today.