DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the Texas Historical Commission put down on the marker for the Barker-Huebinger Homestead out in Wilson County. Now settle in, because this one's got the kind of story that starts in Alabama and ends up carved in red sandstone — and that stone tells you everything you need to know about the people who put it there. Two families made their way out of Alabama in the early 1850s.
The Barkers brought young Emory Crawford Barker, born in 1839, and the Humphreys brought little Leah, born in 1842. Both families landed in the same stretch of Texas ground, which — if you believe in such things — was never really a coincidence at all. It was just the land sorting out who belonged together.
Emory grew up, and when the Civil War came calling he answered it riding with Company G of Terry's Texas Rangers. That's a name that carries weight in Texas, and Emory carried it through the war and brought himself back home. In 1866 he and Leah married, and eventually seven children came along to fill whatever house they'd build.
And build they did. The Barkers bought 260 acres along the Old Sutherland Springs to Seguin Road, and in 1871 they raised a house. Not a wood-frame house, not a rough-hewn cabin — a rock house.
And not just any rock. Red sandstone, sawed rather than chipped or broken, which was the harder, more precise way of doing things and the way most folks didn't bother. That detail right there — sawed, not chipped — is the whole Barker character in a single sentence.
The house sat near a spring-fed water well, and word got around the way word does in open country. Stagecoaches stopped. Wagons stopped.
Travelers who'd been grinding along that road between Sutherland Springs and Seguin found the Barker place and decided it was worth pulling over for. A good well in dry country is a kind of fame all its own. But in 1879 the Barkers sold the house, packed up, and moved on to Blanco County, leaving that careful red sandstone to a succession of owners who came and went like weather.
Then in November of 1916, Rudolph Huebinger — born 1882 — and his wife Adelia Moehrig Huebinger — born 1888 — bought the place, and something settled. Rudolph ran a butcher shop alongside the farm, and Adelia was a noted seamstress and hat maker, working her craft both here in Texas and out in California. Two people who knew how to work with their hands, living inside walls built by people who knew the same thing.
The Huebinger family held onto that property clear into the turn of the twenty-first century. Now if you stand there today and look at what the marker calls a load-bearing masonry structure — with its extended hall and parlor layout, its rough-cut sandstone laid in both regular and irregular courses, those corner quoins fitted with the kind of care that says someone was proud of what they were making — you're looking at 1871 still standing up straight. The stone chimneys are still inside.
The plaster finishes, the wood doors. Out back, the adjacent building — possibly built as a ranch hand bunkhouse — has its own rough-cut sandstone walls, timbered side gables, a fireplace, and something the marker calls a stone nicho, possibly reflecting Hispanic influence, which is the Cibolo Valley reminding you it held many hands before and after any one family arrived. And the well is still there too.
Circular, capped in concrete now, but drop your eyes down that deep shaft and you'll see the same stones that line the buildings lining the walls of the earth itself. Same hands. Same sandstone.
Same place. Started with two Alabama children walking into Texas scrubland in the 1850s. Ended up a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 2008.
The stone didn't chip. It held.
What the marker says
Alabama natives Emory Crawford Barker (1839-1914) and Leah Humphreys (1842-1931) both came to the area with their families in the early 1850s. Emory served in Co. G of Terry’s Texas Rangers during the Civil War. He and Leah married in 1866 and had seven children. The Barkers bought 260 acres along the Old Sutherland Springs - Seguin Road. Their home built in 1871 is one of few remaining rock houses in the Cibolo Valley. Red sandstone for construction was sawed rather than being chipped or broken as was more common. A nearby spring-fed water well made the home a popular stop for stagecoaches and wagons. In 1879, the Barkers sold the house and moved to Blanco county. After a succession of owners, Rudolph (1882-1952) and Adelia Moehrig (1888-1980) Huebinger bought the house in November 1916. Besides this farm Rudolph owned a butcher shop, and Adelia was a noted seamstress and hat maker here and in California. The property remained in the Huebinger family at the turn of the 21st century. This historic homestead includes a main house, outbuilding and well. The home is a load-bearing masonry structure with an extended hall and parlor layout. Rough-cut sandstone is laid in both regular and irregular courses, and craftsmanship is evident in corner quoins and other details. Interior features include stone chimneys, plaster finishes and wood doors. The adjacent building, possibly built as a ranch hand bunkhouse, has rough-cut sandstone laid in regular courses and timbered side gables. Notable interior details include a fireplace and a stone nicho possibly reflecting Hispanic influence. The circular well features a concrete cap atop a deep shaft lined with stones similar to those used in the buildings. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2008