DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it — this one's about a place called Bevilport, and friend, it's worth the stop. Now picture the Angelina River, winding through the thick bottom lands of East Texas. Rich soil, tall timber, and a current that could carry your fortune all the way to New Orleans if you knew how to work it.
And there were men who knew exactly how to work it. One of them was John Bevil. Ranger.
Farmer. Delegate to the Consultation on Texas Independence in 1835 — that gathering where men sat down and started deciding what Texas was going to be. He served as Chief Justice of Jasper County in 1839.
A man who wore more than one hat, and wore every one of 'em well. The town that carried his name — Bevilport — was made the seat of Bevil municipality in 1834. Sitting right there on the Angelina River, it became one of the important river shipping and trading points in the whole region.
And when those docks got busy, they got busy. Flatboats. Keelboats.
Cotton bales stacked high. Hides. All manner of East Texas goods moving down that river toward the Gulf and on to markets in New Orleans.
The stores? Packed with travelers. Because that's what a river town was in those days — it wasn't just a port, it was a crossroads.
The Texas rivers flowing toward the Gulf of Mexico were favorite areas for settlement, and Bevil and others prospered on those rich bottom lands, using the river the way we use highways today — as a road to market. There's something to that, if you sit with it a moment. Before the roads, before the rails, the river was the whole story.
And Bevilport knew it.
What the marker says
Important river shipping and trading point; was made seat of Bevil municipality, 1834. Named for John Bevil, Texas Ranger, a delegate (1835) to Consultation on Texas Independence, Chief Justice of Jasper County (1839), farmer. On Angelina River, Bevilport shipped cotton, hides and other East Texas products to markets in New Orleans. Its docks were busy with flatboats, keelboats-- its stores packed with travelers. Texas rivers flowing to Gulf of Mexico were favorite areas for settlement; Bevil and others prospered on rich "bottom" lands, using river as road to market. (1967)