DUANE
Duane's take
Now, I'm gonna tell this one the way the official marker lays it out — so hold on and let the road unspool a little. Way out here in Tom Green County, where Grape Creek cuts through and the timber actually shows up if you know where to look, there was once a stagecoach stop that planted the seed for one of this county's oldest settlements. And it all goes back to a contract, a creek, and one very tired reporter from New York.
Let me back up. In 1857, a man named John Butterfield — president of the Overland Mail Company — won himself a federal government contract to carry mail twice weekly, in both directions, between the Mississippi River and the Pacific coast. Both directions.
Twice a week. Linking the eastern and western states across some of the most unforgiving land on the continent. Now, to make that happen, Butterfield's operation strung stations across the route, positioned several miles apart.
Each one had a simple shelter, a corral for horses or mules, and enough of a setup to give the stage drivers and passengers a meal and a brief rest. Nothing fancy. Just enough to keep moving.
Then comes the fall of 1858. The inaugural run along the Butterfield Trail — St. Louis all the way to San Francisco — and riding along was a reporter named Waterman Ormsby, from the New York Herald.
He was the lone passenger. Just him and all that Texas. Heading southwest from Fort Chadbourne, over in Coke County, Ormsby arrived at the station on Grape Creek and — and this is the part I love — he pulled out his reporter's instincts and described it as, quote, a fine stream, and also near some fine timber — two desirable things not to be found everywhere in Texas.
Now that's a man who'd been staring at dry country for a while. The fellow in charge at that station was named Henry Roylan, and he was running a small contingent living in tents — tents, mind you — inside a corral built of upright rough timber staked right into the ground. That was the operation.
That was civilization on the Butterfield Trail. The company eventually came through and finished something more permanent — an actual building and a palisade fence. And a man named Joel Pennington set up a store right there alongside the station.
Things were looking settled. Then the spring of 1861 arrived, and just like that, the Butterfield route moved north out of Texas, and the station on Grape Creek closed. But here's the thing about a place where people have stopped to rest and water their animals and buy a few supplies — it doesn't just disappear when the stage stops running.
By 1861, Mount Nebo School had already opened near that station, the forerunner of what would become Grape Creek Schools. The stop had done its work. It had given a community something to grow from.
Out here on Grape Creek, what started as a corral of rough timber staked in the ground — a few tents, a meal, a change of horses — became the beginning of one of Tom Green County's oldest settlements. That's a long way to travel on the strength of a government mail contract and a fine stream.
What the marker says
An early stagecoach stop near here provided the foundation for a frontier community. In the mid 19th century, stage lines were a primary means of moving people, mail and supplies through the region. John Butterfield, president of the Overland Mail Company, won a federal governmant contract in 1857 to take and deliver mail twice weekly in both directions between the Mississippi River and the Pacific coast, linking the eastern and western states. Stations, positioned several miles apart, typically had a simple shelter and a corral for horses or mules, and provided a meal and brief rest for the stage drivers and passengers. Waterman Ormsby, a reporter for the New York Herald, was the lone passenger on the inaugural run along the Butterfield Trail from St. Louis to San Francisco in the fall of 1858. Heading southwest from Fort Chadbourne (Coke Co.), Ormsby wrote of arriving at a station on Grape Creek, "a fine stream, and also near some fine timber--two desirable things not to be found everywhere in Texas." Henry Roylan was in charge of a small contingent living in tents within the corral that was built of upright rough timber staked in the ground. The Butterfield Company later completed a more permanent facility, with a building and a palisade fence. Joel Pennington ran a store in conjunction with the station. The Grape Creek station was open until the spring of 1861, when the Butterfield route moved north out of Texas. Mount Nebo School, forerunner of Grape Creek Schools, opened near the station by 1861. The statecoach stop was the beginning of one of Tom Green County's oldest settlements. (2008)