DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how that official marker tells it, and I'm gonna pass it along just the same way. Back in the 1820s, a man named Abram Alley left Missouri and headed south and west to join his brothers in Stephen F. Austin's Old 300 Colony.
Now that's a name that carries some weight in Texas history — the Old 300, the original settlers Austin brought into this land. Abram put down roots a few miles south of where you're standin' right now, on the east side of the Colorado River. He was building something.
A life, a place, a future. Then in 1835 he married Nancy Millar, of another pioneer family, a woman who would outlast nearly everything this story throws at them. And this story does throw things.
In 1836, the Texas War for Independence was raging, and Santa Anna's forces were pushing through the land, sending settlers running in what folks called the Runaway Scrape. Abram Alley didn't run — he went toward the chaos, going to the aid of fleeing settlers. And while he was out there helping his neighbors survive, his own home was burned.
Let that sit a moment. The man gave up his house to help other people keep their lives. Late in 1836, Abram came back.
And he built again. Right here. He took oak logs and raised this cabin with his own hands.
Inside these walls, he and Nancy raised two daughters and three sons. They entertained friends. They welcomed travelers.
Nancy Millar Alley lived until 1893. Abram died in 1862. The cabin is still standing.
Some things, it turns out, don't burn.
What the marker says
In the 1820s, Abram Alley (d. 1862) came from Missouri to join his brothers in Stephen F. Austin's "Old 300" Colony. He settled a few miles south of here on the east side of the Colorado, and in 1835 married Nancy Millar (1817 - 1893), of another pioneer family. During the Texas War for Independence, he went to the aid of settlers fleeing Santa Anna in the "Runaway Scrape," and his own home was burned. Late in 1836 he returned and built this cabin of oak logs. Here the Alleys raised two daughters and three sons and often entertained friends and travelers. RTHL - 1977