Angier Farm

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna pass it along to you. The story of the Angier Farm goes back a good while before anyone broke ground on that six-room house out in Walker County. You see, the Angier family didn't just show up in Texas one day.

They came as part of Austin's old 300 colonists, some of the very first Anglo settlers to put roots down in this land. So when we talk about the Angiers, we're talkin' about a family with deep Texas soil under their fingernails from the very beginning. James Samuel Angier was born in 1872, right there adjacent to the old Hightower Plantation.

His father was Eugene L. Angier, Sr., and his mother was Ida Hightower Robertson Angier. The land and the family name were already bound up together before James ever drew his first breath.

Now, 1910 rolls around, and James S. and his brother, Dr. E.L. Angier, Jr., make their move.

The two of them purchase a section from their father. That's brothers doing business with family, which, depending on the family, can go a number of ways. Apparently it went just fine, because three years later, in 1913, James Angier moved his family out to work that land and run the farm in earnest.

The house they lived in was built by C.H. Allen. Six rooms.

A double fireplace designed to heat the entire house, which, if you've spent a winter in Walker County, you'll understand was not a luxury, it was a plan. That double fireplace is a quiet piece of practical genius, hidden right there in the architecture. And that architecture, plain and purposeful as it is, has held up through the generations as a fine example of early twentieth century rural life in Texas.

James Samuel Angier lived until 1954. The farm outlasted nearly everything that surrounded it. Some places just hold.

This is one of them.

What the marker says

James Samuel Angier (1872-1954) was born adjacent to the old Hightower Plantation to Eugene L. Angier, Sr., and Ida Hightower Robertson Angier. The Angier family first moved to Texas as one of Austin's old 300 colonists. In 1910, James S. and his brother, Dr. E.L. Angier, Jr., purchased a section from his father. Three years later, in 1913, James Angier moved his family here to run the farm. Built by C.H. Allen, the home includes six rooms and a double fireplace to heat the entire house. Throughout the generations, the Angier Farm has stood as a fine example of early 20th century rural architecture. RECORDED TEXAS HISTORIC LANDMARK - 2016