DUANE
Duane's take
The way the marker at this spot tells it, here's the story as I know it to be true. Back around 1830, a man named Pleasant Gray showed up in this part of Texas. He'd come out of Alabama — an adventurer and a pioneer — and he had an eye for opportunity.
He picked this spot and established an Indian post right here. Now, why here? The marker doesn't say he agonized over it, and I doubt he did.
The springs were nearby, and friendly Indians of East Texas had long used those springs. That kind of foot traffic is worth something to a trading man. So here he planted himself.
The western Indians came in with hides, ponies, and cured meat. The East Texas Indians brought agricultural products and pottery. Somewhere in the middle of all that exchange stood Pleasant Gray, and the post hummed along.
Then settlers started arriving, as settlers do. By 1836 — that's during the Republic of Texas — the future town of Huntsville had started to spring up right around this very location. What had been a trading post on a quiet set of springs was becoming something bigger than one man's enterprise.
Gray held on. But time has a way of outpacing a person, and by 1846 he sold the post. The marker says it plainly: he could no longer tend it.
Two years after that, in 1848, Pleasant Gray died. He left behind one son. That's the whole of what the stone records about him — adventurer, pioneer, founder of a post that grew into a town, and a father once over.
Not a bad accounting, when you think about it.
What the marker says
Located here about 1830, this Indian post was established by Pleasant Gray, adventurer and pioneer from Alabama. Friendly Indians of East Texas had long used the nearby springs and they came to exchange agricultural products and pottery for hides, ponies, and cured meat brought by the western Indians. Soon settlers began to move into the region and by 1836, during the Republic of Texas, the future town of Huntsville had started to spring up here. Gray sold his post in 1846, as he could no longer tend it. He died in 1848. He had one son.