DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say — and this one, friends, is something else entirely. Pull over if you have to, because we're talking about a woman whose face ended up on money. Not just any money.
Confederate money. The hundred-dollar bill, to be exact. The only woman from nineteenth-century Texas ever honored that way.
Her name was Lucy Holcombe Pickens, born in 1832, gone in 1899, and right here in Harrison County is where her story begins. The place was called Wyalucing — her family's home, stood right at this site. Say that name out loud: Wyalucing.
It had a ring to it, and it earned that ring. In the plantation country of East Texas, Wyalucing was the center of social and cultural life for a wide area. People came from all over, and Lucy made sure they had something to talk about when they left.
Now, picture East Texas in the 1850s. Hot. Slow.
And then here comes Lucy Holcombe, nineteen, twenty years old, introducing ice tea and silk hose to the whole region. Ice tea. In East Texas.
The woman had range. Her husband became the Civil War Governor of South Carolina. Her two brothers served as Texas soldiers.
And when the war came to Wyalucing itself, the house transformed — from 1863 to 1865, it served as headquarters for the Confederate Post Office Department in the area west of the Mississippi River. That parlor where Lucy once hosted East Texas society became a nerve center for wartime communications across half a continent. Wyalucing stood through all of it — the antebellum elegance, the war years, decades beyond — until it was razed in 1962.
Gone, but not forgotten, because the story doesn't end there. The Holcombe family had deep roots at the First Presbyterian Church, right here where this marker now stands. That congregation was organized at Wyalucing itself, on May 30, 1850.
Lucy's father, B. L. Holcombe, was the congregation's very first ruling elder.
And in 1853, Lucy Holcombe was received into the membership of that same church. The house is gone, but the congregation it helped birth is still standing. The marker you're looking at was originally placed out at the Wyalucing site, four-tenths of a mile west on Burleson Street.
In 1990 it was relocated here to the church — which makes a certain kind of sense. The home is gone, but the church endures, and Lucy Holcombe Pickens is on the hundred-dollar bill. Some legacies you just can't raze.
What the marker says
(1832-1899) Only 19th century Texas woman honored by a portrait on money-- the Confederate $100 bill. In 1850s Lucy introduced ice tea and silk hose to East Texas, in social affairs at Wyalucing-- her family's home which stood at this site and was a center for social and cultural life in a wide area of plantations. Her husband was the Civil War Governor of South Carolina; her 2 brothers were Texas soldiers. Wyalucing (razed 1962) became 1863-65 headquarters for the Confederate Post Office Department in the area west of the Mississippi River. Supplemental Plate, 1989: This historical marker was relocated in 1990 from the site of Wyalucing (0.4 mi. West on Burleson Street) to the First Presbyterian Church. The Holcombe family was closely associated with the church, which was organized at Wyalucing on May 30, 1850. Lucy Pickens' father, B. L. Holcombe, was the congregation's first ruling elder. Lucy Holcombe was received into the membership of the church in 1853. (1965) Supplemental plate: This historical marker was relocated in 1990 from the site of Wyalucing (0.4 mi. West on Burleson Street) to the First Presbyterian Church. The Holcombe family was closely associated with the church, which was organized at Wyalucing on May 30, 1850. Lucy Pickens' father, B. L. Holcombe, was the congregation's first ruling elder. Lucy Holcombe was received into the membership of the church in 1853.