DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Out here in Milam County, near Cameron, there's a house that's been quietly collecting history since before most of Texas knew what it was going to be. The Green-Batte House — and the story starts, as the best ones do, with a man who knew how to read the land.
George Green was born in 1813, and by 1847 he was putting down roots in a serious way. He built himself a cabin right here, and nothing about it was imported or easy — the logs came from nearby, the bricks came from nearby. A man making a home out of whatever the country would give him.
And George Green was no ordinary settler. He was a prominent early surveyor, which means he helped draw the shape of this part of Texas with his own hands. And before that — before the measuring and the mapping — he had stood in the Battle of San Jacinto.
This was among Cameron's first homes. Think on that a moment. Among the first.
In the 1850s, boards were added, because that's what living in a place does — it grows you, and you grow it. Green passed in 1885, and the house kept standing. Then, around 1900, a man named R.
L. Batte, Sr. purchased it. Now, R.
L. Batte, Sr. was a particular kind of Texas figure — oil mill owner, law officer, and capitalist, all at once. Both owners, over the years, kept adding rooms, layer by layer, life by life.
But here's the thing that stops you when you hear it. Batte didn't just raise his own children in this house. He reared many orphans here too.
All those rooms, all those years, all that space — put to use. The cabin built of local logs and local brick in 1847 is still in there, enclosed now within everything that came after. That's the Green-Batte House.
Still standing, still holding its stories close.
What the marker says
Now enclosed, original cabin on site was built of logs and bricks both made nearby, 1847. Owner was George Green (1813-1885), prominent early surveyor and soldier in Battle of San Jacinto. Home was among Cameron's first. Boards were added in 1850s. About 1900, R. L. Batte, Sr., an oil mill owner, law officer, and capitalist, purchased home. Over years, both owners added rooms. Batte reared his children and many orphans in this house. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1969