DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say, and this one's got some road in it. Now, every great journey starts with somebody deciding the trail needs to be a road. Back in February of 1844, the Republic of Texas Congress looked out at all that wild, stumpy, red-clay country and said: we are going to do something about this.
They authorized the Central National Road; and they weren't messin' around. Thirty feet wide. Cleared of every stump over twelve inches high.
That's a serious road, friends. They sent out a survey team to make it real. Major George W.
Stell led that crew, and he had himself a job to do. Starting near the mouth of the Elm Fork on the Trinity River, right about where downtown Dallas sits today, he platted a route running northeast all the way to Kiomatia on the Red River. When it was done, this highway would stitch together a road heading south to Austin and San Antonio on one end, and connect to a U.S. military highway running north to St.
Louis from Fort Towson, up in present-day Oklahoma, on the other. One road. Two directions.
A whole republic trying to hold itself together across the open land. Running east out of Dallas, the Central National Road bent northeast; and that bend carried it straight through the area that would become Rockwall County. That stretch of road wasn't just a line on a survey map.
It was a lifeline. And folks followed it. By about 1846, the earliest Rockwall County pioneers were settling in close to that road.
Sterling R. Barnes put down his homestead about two miles south of where the town of Rockwall now stands. John O.
Heath found his spot near the crossing of the East Fork of the Trinity River. Two men, two patches of ground, a road connecting them to the rest of the known world. Out of those beginnings, towns rose.
The place that would eventually be called Heath went by two earlier names first: Black Hill, then Willow Springs, before it found the name it's kept. And Rockwall itself, the county seat, grew up right along that same highway. Portions of that old route are still out there.
FM 740, known locally as Ridge Road, follows the historic path. You might be driving it right now and not even know you're rolling over the same ground Major Stell's survey team walked back in 1844. That's the thing about old roads.
They don't disappear. They just get paved over and renamed, while the story underneath keeps running.
What the marker says
In an effort to improve overland transportation, the Republic of Texas Congress authorized the Central National Road in Feb. 1844. The roadway was to be 30 feet wide and cleared of stumps over 12 inches high. A survey team led by Major George W. Stell platted the route from near the mouth of Elm Fork on the Trinity River in present downtown Dallas, northeast to Kiomatia on the Red River. The highway linked a road leading south to Austin and San Antonio with a U.S. military highway extending north to St. Louis from Fort Towson in present Oklahoma. Running east from Dallas, the Central National Road turned northeast to cross the area that is now Rockwall County. Portions of FM 740, known locally as Ridge Road, follow the historic route. The earliest Rockwall County pioneers settled near the road about 1846. Sterling R. Barnes located his homestead about two miles south of the present site of Rockwall, and John O. Heath settled near the crossing of the East Fork of the Trinity River. The towns of Heath, originally named "Black Hill" and later "Willow Springs," and Rockwall, the county seat, were founded along the highway. (1977)