... Among the earliest settlers in the Rock Church area on Richardson Creek, and the Paluxy River, were Isaac F. COWAN, Jesse CARAWAY, William B. PATE, and Jesse's son-in-law, J.R. JONES, and their families who had migrated from Gibson County, Tennessee to settle on the land in 1859, which they had bought or pre-empted two years earlier.

The men had first come without their families, not knowing what they would be able to find in the way of land for establishing homes.  Isaac COWAN secured about 1,500 acres, and CARAWAY about the same.  Jesse CARAWAY and his father, Bryant CARAWAY, had been neighbors of the Davey [sic] CROCKETT family, back in Gibson County, Tennessee.

Mrs. Elizabeth CROCKETT was given a land grant by the State of Texas after her husband, Davy CROCKETT, was killed at the Alamo in Texas' War for Independence.  That land grant was situated near present day Acton, Texas on the east bank of the Brazos River, not far from the present site of Granbury.  Mrs. CROCKETT and her son, Robert came to Texas to prove that grant in 1854.  They first went to Ellis County near Waxahachie, Texas until they could locate the grant, build a cabin on it, and prove the land.

Jesse CARAWAY knew about the grant before Elizabeth CROCKETT left Tennessee.  Isaac COWAN wrote in his diary of their trip, about stopping off to see Mrs. CROCKETT, in their search for land in Texas, hence this was probably one of the reasons they settled nearby, since these were homefolk with whom they were familiar.

Jesse CARAWAY would later donate the land located across the Paluxy River from his original homestead for Rock Church's school, church and cemetery.  His old log cabin has been preserved by his family and still stands today.

The Ben TINNIN Family migrated from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, along with his mother, Charity TINNIN, who was born in Germany, a brother, two sisters, and a family by the name of CRITES.  They were already ranching here in 1857, nearby what is now the Rock Church area of the Paluxy Valley.  Ben's family comfortably settled in a lovely two chimney log cabin that still stands on Baker's Crossing Road which now connects the Rock Church area to the townsite of Paluxy, then the business center of this part of Hood County ...

SOURCE:

National Trust for Historic Preservation: Tour of Dinasaur Valley & Paluxy Town-Site, (Meek Family Association, ©1995), pp. 8-9.





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This page last updated 20 Nov 2004.