WELLS BRANCH NEIGHBORHOOD FRONTIER NIGHT October 2013

 

6:30 PM OPEN HOUSE at the Homestead with

 new curator, Brian Almon, on the 

FIRST NEIGHBORHOOD FRONTIER NIGHT

About 20 people came to see the Wells Branch Homestead

 a.k.a. the Gault Homestead at dusk.

With the beat of the Shaman drum, the presentation started at the Community Center with 1850-type refreshments of ginger cake, honey buns, and almond tea.

Virginia Almon, curator of Wells Branch in the line of past curator and resident liar Bill Todd - who taught that Wells Branch is different from Pioneer Farms; we are folkloric and do Education with Showmanship - opened with a saying from John Foster Dulles: 

If only we are faithful to our past, we shall not have to fear our future. The cause of peace, justice and liberty need not fail and must not fail.

Since it is somewhat unusual for a Municipal Utility District to be in the museum business, all present took a moment to recognize and thank the current Wells Branch Trustees, the Well Branch Homestead Board and donors to The Homestead for their support.

 The featured speaker from the Texas General Land Office, was Mr. Buck Cole, Education and Outreach Coordinator.  He began his outstanding Educational program Done with Showmanship on how early land grants from Mexico and Texas influenced the settlements in our area. 

Those present learned that Thomas Jefferson Chambers, in payment for his role as a Mexican supreme judge, was the first to claim a league of land on which Wells Branch and many others are now located.  However, due to the Texas Revolution and the quickness of squatters, Judge Chambers was unable to make claim on all his land.  This valuable information will not change the Wells Branch historical marker which shows a soldier of the Texas Revolution, J.P. Whelin first. Enlisting for three months, Whelin was given an honorable discharge in August 1836. In 1851 he was awarded a grant of 320 acres for his military service to the Republic of Texas.

Whelin made no improvements to his new property, but sold it the same year, through his assignee Francis Brichta of New Orleans, to Nathaniel C. Raymond (1820-1870.) Moving to Texas from Mississippi, Raymond owned the Whelin tract from 1851 to 1853, when he sold it to John M. Gault. According to family tradition, John M. Gault constructed the original section of the cabin on the Whelin grant.

In addition to original land grants, the TX General Land Office has love letters of married couples, and letters from soldiers and pioneers that have been preserved and typed out for ease of reading today.  Communicating back in the 1800s was very different from today.  Mr. Cole whetted our appetite to read or hear the love letters of married couples and concerns of past Texans. I wonder how we can be faithful to our past in this regard. Until we meet again, let us be faithful to the past by being present to those we love, attentive to their needs. 

Mr. Cole concluded his presentation with a drawing for three historical Texas maps.