Head of Elm (Saint Jo)

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, some places earn their history slow, a little at a time, like sediment settling at the bottom of a creek. And then there are places like Head of Elm, up in Montague County, where history just kept showing up, year after year, like it had somewhere to be.

First one through was Captain Randolph B. Marcy, 1849, on a U.S. Government survey trip.

He came, he looked, he noted the spot. A man on government business doesn't linger, but he doesn't forget a place like this either. Five years pass.

It's 1854 now, and here comes Captain John Pope, this time surveying a proposed federal railroad route. A railroad. Somebody already had big ideas for this corner of Texas.

Then 1855 brings something louder. The U.S. Second Cavalry, under Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston, comes riding through en route to establish Texas frontier forts.

And they don't just pass through quietly. They report a settlement here. Something is already taking root.

By 1857, Colonel James B. Llach is heading a corn train to Fort Belknap right through this very spot. Corn trains don't roll through nowhere.

They roll through places that matter. Then 1860, and the United States Post Office arrives. John W.

Womble becomes the first postmaster. When the mail starts coming to a place, that place has arrived. And then, 1873.

Captain I. H. Boggess and I.

A. Bowell found Saint Jo right here on this site. So the next time you pass through Saint Jo and think it looks like a town that's been standing a good long while, well, you're not wrong.

The surveyors came first, then the cavalry, then the corn, then the mail. By the time the founders showed up in 1873, this place had already been introduc itself to the world for nearly a quarter century.

What the marker says

1849-Capt. Randolph B. Marcy U.S. Government Survey Trip; 1854-Capt. John Pope Surveying proposed Federal Railroad; 1855-U.S. 2nd Cavalry Under Col. Albert Sidney Johnson en route to establish Texas Frontier forts, reported settlement here; 1857-Col. James B. Llach Heading "corn train" to Fort Belknap; 1860-First U.S. Post Office John W. Womble Post Master; 1873-Saint Jo Founded On site by Capt. I.H. Boggess & I.A. Bowell. (1964)