No matter how many times one searches for and finds some evidence of a certain aspect of history, there is always something more to find. One might think of this like the tip of the iceberg.
Sometime last year, we stumbled upon a book in the side room of the museum in Seguin. This side room looked more like a storeroom than it did as part of the museum's main room. Poking around on the shelves we noticed a stack of books, all the same title--there might have been ten of them all--- neatly stacked up with the bound edge facing out so we could read the title. It was a self published book Stagecoach Road.
It looked like history as we flipped through the book, so we bought it. And, it turned out to be an interesting account of farm life in the area to the west of Seguin, Texas during the early 1900s.
After reading the book, one thing led to another and we toured the area of Stagecoach Road, still named that on maps. From records, we learned that there were only two roads connecting San Antonio with Seguin and parts east in the late 1800s. One was called the Upper Seguin Road, the other the Lower Seguin Road. The Upper Seguin Road was more heavily travelled in early years because it was on higher ground where it was more reliable from the standpoint of river and creek crossings. Since there were no bridges across these waterways, the traveler either had to use a ferry service or a fording place. Not all parts of the river offered safe fording places as some were sandy, or the banks of the stream were impassable or had some other ease of access problem. Both roads however had to cross a large river, the Guadalupe. The upper road crossing of the river was at Young's Ford. This is the fording place used by German Immigrants making their way from Indianola on the coast to New Braunfels. We have yet to find that crossing as it is all consumed in brush and old structures in the McQueeney area.
An interesting side note on this fording place relates to a discussion I had with an old timer who lives in McQueeney. I asked him if he knew where Youngs Ford crossed the river. I guess my way of pronouncing Young's Ford did not ring true to his ears and he kept trying to correct me by says Youngsford---sounding like "Youngsferd". Then after I explained that it was Mr. Young who had the fording place on the river, he said, "oh, no, no one would know that around here because no one pays any attention to the history of the area". But from our experience, we can expect that someone does, we just haven't found the person yet.
But, back to Stagecoach Road. Because the Upper Seguin Road received all the development over the last 100 years, the Lower Seguin Road has been relatively untouched except by Mother Nature.
One of the farmers in the early 1900s had a well built home, a barn and lots of land. All we could spot of the barn was this rusty rooftop--a photo taken from several hundred yards distance over the top of the mesquite trees.
From the first time we read the book, we knew we had to talk to the author of the book. We did locate him and several conversations later we learned more about the family that was the center of the story in the Stagecoach Road book.
On a second trip we explored the site of Erskin's Ferry where Stagecoach Road crossed the River and looked for any evidence of what had been described by the author of the book. The book mentioned a pump installed to pump water from the river and a two inch pipe laid from the pump to several farms alongside the road. A cooperative project among interested farmers. The book also mentioned a dam made by setting sacks of concrete in the rock bottom of the riverbed, and a water powered mill on a millrace created by the dam.
We eventually found the pump house, then on a later trip we found some two inch pipe where it had worked its way to the surface of the ground, and a foundation that could well be the old water tower foundation. There is no hope for the remaining artifacts of the dam or the mill as that has probably been worked over by subsequent owners of the site. Still, one can imagine that there might well be a few sacks of hardened concrete on the river bed waiting to be discovered.
Sometime last year, we stumbled upon a book in the side room of the museum in Seguin. This side room looked more like a storeroom than it did as part of the museum's main room. Poking around on the shelves we noticed a stack of books, all the same title--there might have been ten of them all--- neatly stacked up with the bound edge facing out so we could read the title. It was a self published book Stagecoach Road.
It looked like history as we flipped through the book, so we bought it. And, it turned out to be an interesting account of farm life in the area to the west of Seguin, Texas during the early 1900s.
After reading the book, one thing led to another and we toured the area of Stagecoach Road, still named that on maps. From records, we learned that there were only two roads connecting San Antonio with Seguin and parts east in the late 1800s. One was called the Upper Seguin Road, the other the Lower Seguin Road. The Upper Seguin Road was more heavily travelled in early years because it was on higher ground where it was more reliable from the standpoint of river and creek crossings. Since there were no bridges across these waterways, the traveler either had to use a ferry service or a fording place. Not all parts of the river offered safe fording places as some were sandy, or the banks of the stream were impassable or had some other ease of access problem. Both roads however had to cross a large river, the Guadalupe. The upper road crossing of the river was at Young's Ford. This is the fording place used by German Immigrants making their way from Indianola on the coast to New Braunfels. We have yet to find that crossing as it is all consumed in brush and old structures in the McQueeney area.
An interesting side note on this fording place relates to a discussion I had with an old timer who lives in McQueeney. I asked him if he knew where Youngs Ford crossed the river. I guess my way of pronouncing Young's Ford did not ring true to his ears and he kept trying to correct me by says Youngsford---sounding like "Youngsferd". Then after I explained that it was Mr. Young who had the fording place on the river, he said, "oh, no, no one would know that around here because no one pays any attention to the history of the area". But from our experience, we can expect that someone does, we just haven't found the person yet.
But, back to Stagecoach Road. Because the Upper Seguin Road received all the development over the last 100 years, the Lower Seguin Road has been relatively untouched except by Mother Nature.
One of the farmers in the early 1900s had a well built home, a barn and lots of land. All we could spot of the barn was this rusty rooftop--a photo taken from several hundred yards distance over the top of the mesquite trees.
From the first time we read the book, we knew we had to talk to the author of the book. We did locate him and several conversations later we learned more about the family that was the center of the story in the Stagecoach Road book.
We eventually found the pump house, then on a later trip we found some two inch pipe where it had worked its way to the surface of the ground, and a foundation that could well be the old water tower foundation. There is no hope for the remaining artifacts of the dam or the mill as that has probably been worked over by subsequent owners of the site. Still, one can imagine that there might well be a few sacks of hardened concrete on the river bed waiting to be discovered.
To summarize our theory on where all this was built, we constructed the following map from Google Earth view of the site
What a hundred years does to the scene. In the early 1900s, farmers were struggling with making a living on their land, innovating all the time to make life better for their families. Now, on this map just below the upper right hand label is a summer resort on the island. From the days when men did not allow their wives and daughters to wear revealing clothing to now when those paying to enter this day resort are clothed in nearly nothing. Wondering what the next one hundred years will bring to society?
By the way, the plant across the river is a steel mill and just to the right is a now not operating Acme Brick Co. plant. The brick company plant was built here because the hill is a unique deposit of clay used for brick making.
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