Julia Ann Ragsdale Home

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Julia Ann Ragsdale Home in Hays County. Now settle in, because this one's about a woman who kept showing up for her family, time and time and time again. Julia Ann Ragsdale was born in 1821, and by the time her story reaches Texas, she has already buried a husband and crossed a war.

She was a widow, the widow of Dr. Frederick B. Ragsdale, who lived from 1804 to 1851.

And she was no ordinary widow, either. She was well-educated, the kind of woman who taught school in Arkansas back when that meant something considerable. But something called her westward, and during the Civil War she packed up her family and brought them to Texas.

That takes a particular kind of nerve, movin' a family in the middle of a war. In 1864, her daughter Mary Elizabeth, born in 1843, married a man named Light Stapleton Townsend, born in 1834. That name, Light Stapleton Townsend, sounds like a man who arrived already carrying his own legend.

And then came the loss that shapes the rest of this story. Mary Elizabeth died in 1872. She was gone, and she left behind four children and a grieving mother who could have stepped back from the whole arrangement.

Julia Ann Ragsdale did not step back. In 1875 she moved to Wimberley to raise those four grandchildren herself. And Light Stapleton Townsend, to his credit, did not leave them without shelter.

In 1879 he built this board-and-batten home right there on Cypress Creek, a place solid enough to hold a grandmother, four children, and the memory of the woman they'd all lost. Julia Ann Ragsdale lived until 1908. The house on Cypress Creek outlasted the grief that built it.

That's the kind of story Texas tends to keep.

What the marker says

Widow of Dr. Frederick B. Ragsdale (1804-1851), Julia Ann Ragsdale (1821-1908) was a well-educated woman who taught school in Arkansas before she brought her family to Texas during the Civil War. In 1864 her daughter Mary Elizabeth (1843-1872) married Light Stapleton Townsend (1834-1928). After Mary's death, Mrs. Ragsdale moved to Wimberley in 1875 to raise her four grandchildren. Townsend built this board-and-batten home for them on Cypress Creek in 1879. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1976