(EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the second and final part in a series on the Rock Church Community and the area surrounding.  The first installment appeared in last Sunday's (Nov. 15) Daily Empire.)

Any history of Rock Church and the Paluxy and Richardson Creek Valleys must include the name of the COWANs.  As has been mentioned, Isaac COWAN was the first of the clan to arrive — he and Jesse CARAWAY coming together in 1855.  I had been told that Mrs. Sallie JACKSON, a widow, the daughter of A.H. COWAN and the grand-daughter of Isaac COWAN could tell the story.  Mrs. JACKSON and her sister, Miss Winnie COWAN live together near Richardson creek and about one mile from the original COWAN home, picture of the home appearing below.  The house is now on the ranch of E.L. RHODES Jr. of Bluff Dale.  A few years ago, in order to save the building from further deterioration, the good ladies of the Country Woman's Club of Paluxy and Rock Church raised a fund for re-roofing the old building.  So now the historic Isaac COWAN home "sports an almost new cedar shingle roof."  Mrs. JACKSON's memory as to people, places and events is something remarkable.  But she Should know Paluxy River and Richardson Creek, for he [sic] has lived here all her life, with the exception of a few years when she and her husband were "living out" a land claim in New Mexico.  She even lies on the same ranch where she was born.  As a small girl, said Mrs. JACKSON, "I listened to the stories about men who fought the Civil War (some returned, others lost their lives) also of Indian depredations prior to the war.  I was listening to actual experiences of my father, uncles, grandfather and neighbors."  "The occurences seemed so real that I sank deeper and deeper in my chair."  "My maternal grandfather, Ben EARP, was not one of the original settlers but came in 1871, after experiences which are seldom crowded into a life-time."  He ran away from his Alabama home at the age of 16 and joined in the war with Mexico in 1846.  He came out of this unscathed and, later joined up with the Confederate forces.  Leaving his second war experience behind him, he came to the Paluxy country and, as though he didn't have enough of war, he joined the Texas Rangers.

To add an extra ray of sunshine to the JACKSON home, her grand-daughter Miss Vivian Ann JORDAN, is living with them and attending Tarleton State College.  Vivian drove the car, Mrs. JACKSON accompanying her, and directing us to the Isaac COWAN original home built in 1859.  The place was new to Vivian, as the old home is off the highway and through Two Pasture Gates.  Vivian appreciated viewing for the first time the ancestral home of her Great-Great-Great-Grandfather.  After telling Mrs. JACKSON that my mission was to write a story about the people in Paluxy and Richardson Creek Valleys, she was very co-operative and assumed an attitude of: "Well, what do you want me to talk about, Mr. BRYANT?"

The Valley people are very dear to her.  It was rather like the definition of a friend: "One who knows all about you and still loves you."  Well, she "knows all about the Valley people and still loves them."  She is related to many of them and has watched the boys and girls among them grow up and start families of their own.  She started to describing "down river" first, which included the river crossing near the community of Paluxy.  Paluxy still exists with it's [sic] church and a few residences, but, at one time there were stores and a post office.  "My father," she said, got his mail there for 22 years.  The original name for Paluxy was Pulltight and there are two versions regarding the old name: Oen [sic] is that a sand bed near there caused a hard pull for the teams; the other is that it was a hard pull up the banks of the Paluxy river.  Today a magnificent re-enforced concrete bridge spans the River at this point, the bridge being part of highway No. 51, leading from Granbury South.  But Mrs. JACKSON wanted to tell about the old grist mill, run by water, which is up-river almost within sight of the bridge.  The grist mill was built in 1860 by a man named GOATHER but he soon sold it to Dan HEMMINS and J.H. HALEY, who operated the mill for many years.  Said Mrs. JACKSON, "people came to this mill for miles up and down these two valleys to have their wheat and corn ground into flour and meal"  [F]or pay, the miller received a portion of the grain which he kept separately.  Two symbols of the times are about 500 yards apart on the River — the modern bridge, typical of today's progress and, on the other hand, part of the stone walls of the mill (still standing), which served the earliest pioneers by processing their food.

Ancient Furniture

Mrs. JACKSON's thoughts turned to furniture of early days.  Said she: "My grandfather, Isaac COWAN, had heard about a cabinet or furniture worker in Arkansas.  He sent for him and this worker came in 1860 to build a number of items, including beds, dressers, a loom, chairs and so forth.  Mrs. JACKSON has two items which are the handwork of this Arkansas builder — one, an oak chair with rawhide bottom and the other a bed.  The furniture was built from burr oak, which grows near-by.  The bed has rather massive posts and heavy railing, wooden pegs and steel bolts used for fastening at the corners.

It is uncertain as to the origin of the name Paluxy but it is generally conceded to be an Indian word, or rather, Indians in the distant past had migrated to Texas from the vicinity of Biloxi, Mississippi and they were trying to name the river for Biloxi — their pronunciation sounded like Paluxy, so that was it.

This beautiful little river, often un-noticed by the casual traveler, has it's [sic] source in the Northern part of Erath County, flows Southeast into Hood County, thence South into Somervell County and into the Brazos River near Glen Rose.  Richardson Creek roughly parallels the Paluxy in Southeastern Erath County and flows into the Paluxy in Western Somervell County.  The narrow valleys of both streams with their rich soils, must enter into any complete story of the communities of Rock Church and Paluxy.

There is a "one-ness" among these people.  Mrs. KEAHEY of Bluff Dale, formerly a school teacher at Rock Church, thinks nothing of climbing into her comfortable car and dashing off South to visit Bruce CARAWAYs "Just across the river" from Rock Church.  And they have something in common to talk about — one item, for instance, is that she once taught all three of the red-headed sons of the CARAWAYs and they have all done well as business and professional men.

Mrs. JACKSON drives around a few curves (a gravel road, however) for nearly a mile just to swap news with Mr. and Mrs. Jim BUCK.  Jim BUCK's father, the late Silas BUCK, one of the finest of men, lived in this neighborhood.  These first pioneers were not saints, by any means.

Most of them held to the fundamentals of some religion but they also had to be tough to compete with horse-thieves and Indians and fight a few other wars.  And this necessity for courage included the women in the early day.  For instance, when Isaac COWAN, as ranger, was away on duty, he left a loaded rifle with instructions to "shoot to kill if it takes that to protect you and the children."

Indian Fighter Turns Citizen

But, when the smoke of battles blew over, Isaac COWAN settled down to a very influential citizen, a leader in his community and such a strong Democrat that one of the CARAWAYs said "I think he is still voting for Andrew JACKSON and telling about the battle of New Orleans."  In reality, COWAN did know Andrew JACKSON before he came to Texas and greatly admired JACKSON.

Everything was not as somber about pioneer days as some might think.  They had their brilliant annual dances at COWANs and UNDERWOODs and JACKSON's and smaller dances in between.  There were a number of callers at the square dances and Norton KEAHEY was known as one of the best.

Mrs. JACKSON referred several times to a small community called Vinegar Hill but it was large enough to have a school and, at one time, they employed a dancing teacher to start the youngsters on the correct step.  From the best account, this community was down-river from Rock Church, but it was short-lived and nothing there now in the way of buildings.

Social Life

Mrs. Henry MARTIN of Stephenville volunteers information about social life at Rock Church (later than the pioneer period) and tells of the religious meetings and social gatherings of various kinds.  Said Mrs. MARTIN "I remember the days of the brush arbor, built for the summer near the church, when people would come from miles around.  They would actually camp out for a week or more, cooking meals in some improvised way on the church grounds.  The sermons were long and often of the hell-fire kind."

Next to the Christian minister, the family doctor is possibly closer to the very hearts of people than any other class.  Such a person was Dr. Hardy L. HOLT, an ex-Confederate soldier, who became a doctor and served the people of Bluff Dale and Paluxy valley for generations.  He came to Bluff Dale in 1872, not living in the valley proper, but near enough that his practice as a physician carried him to the communities mentioned in our story — so often that he seemed a part of them all.  Dr. HOLT owned a cattle ranch near-by and he did some very original things in it's [sic] operation.  He designed a cattle brand spelling out the entire word HOLT and his branded cattle carried this "lengthy marking around."  Dr. HOLT was the grandfather of Mrs. Joe B. FREY and Mrs. Jack REYNOLDS.

There is a study in geology along the River.  Above Rock Church a few miles [are] parts of petrified trees and down-river in Somervell County are the famous dinosaur tracks embedded in rocks along the banks of the Paluxy.

Frontier violence has departed and substantial cattle and goat ranchers and grain farmers live in these gentle valleyes [sic] of the Paluxy and Richardson Creek country.  They have a history in which they may take pride.  They have lived in the finest tradition of the pioneer American, who blazed the trail from East to West.

As I approach this country from the North, with it's [sic] brooding low range of mountains and pleasant valleys beyond, I still think of it as a kind of land set apart.  Blessed by the Creator in a myriad ways it seemed to be waiting for courageous Southerners, following their losses in war.  Truly it is a pleasant land.

A salute to Rock Church, Paluxy and Richardson Creek Valleys, a territory which lies across the line of Erath and Hood counties.  Your mountains and valleys, burr Oaks and pecan trees, petrified [trees] and dinosaur tracks, historic buildings and hospitable people — all makes [sic] a picture that you will remember.

Many worthy people have had a part in the Valley's history.  It is obvious that I could not mention them all.

I think [sic] all who furnished [this?] information.

[ PHOTO CAPTIONS ]

RICHARDSON CREEK LANDMARK — Original Isaac COWAN home built of logs in 1858 is located about three miles southwest of Rock Church on Richardson Creek.  Note the old wood cook stove leaning against the chimney.  The house has been recovered with cedar shingles by Country Women's Club of Rock Church and Paluxy.

PALUXY MILL — Dan HEMMINS and J.H. HALY Flour and Corn Mill built in 1860 stands on the Paluxy River at the Paluxy community.  Built of native rock, only part of the water-powered [end of caption]

SALLIE JACKSON HOME — Mrs. Sallie JACKSON and Miss Winnie COWAN (left) hold a 104-year-old rawhide bottom chair in front of Mrs. JACKSON's home about four miles southwest of Rock Church near Richardson Creek.  Mrs. JACKSON was raised in this locality and now lives on the ancestral home of her father A.B. COWAN.

SOURCE:

Claude W. Bryant, "Rock Church Community Presents Picture of Early Frontier" (Part 2), Stephenville Empire-Tribune, Friday, 27 Nov 1964, p. __.  Microfilm copy of newspaper, Dick Smith Library, Tarleton State University, Stephenville, Texas (generously contributed by Cindy Shipman, Stephenville, Texas).

~ Go here for Part I ~

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15 Sep 2006  |  15 Sep 2006