Moseley's Ferry

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, friends, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, if you've ever stood on the bank of the Brazos River and watched that brown water move, you know it doesn't care much about your plans. It just keeps rolling.

And for a long stretch of Texas history, the only way across it at this particular bend was to trust a flat piece of wood, a strong rope or pole, and whoever happened to be runnin' the ferry that season. This is the story of Moseley's Ferry. It sat right where the Old San Antonio Road crossed the Brazos River, which tells you something already.

The Old San Antonio Road was not a casual route. Travelers on that road needed to get across, and they needed to get across reliably. Michael Boren, born in 1806, was the man who started it all, beginning the public ferry around 1846.

Now, Boren ran it for a few years, but the name that stuck, the name that would outlast almost everything else at that crossing, belonged to Daniel Moseley. Moseley was born in 1787, and when he took over the service in 1849, the ferry and the settlement that had grown up nearby both took his name. His family kept it going, kept the boats moving, kept the livestock loaded and the freight dry, until 1868.

Twenty-some years of Moseleys on that river. Then other ferrymen carried on the work, because the Brazos wasn't going anywhere and neither were the people who needed to cross it. Travelers, livestock, freight, season after season, decade after decade, right on up to 1912.

That's when the Houston and Texas Central, now known as the Southern Pacific, constructed a railroad bridge at that very location. A railroad bridge. You can imagine what that meant for a ferry.

It meant the end. After all those years of wooden planks and river current and ferrymen who knew every mood of the Brazos, the crossing went to steel and steam. Today, a highway bridge spans the same river where Moseley's Ferry once operated.

Different era, same crossing. The Brazos still doesn't care about your plans, but at least now you can get to the other side without negotiating with the river.

What the marker says

Situated where the Old San Antonio Road crossed the Brazos River, this public ferry was begun by Michael Boren (1806-75) about 1846. The ferry and a settlement nearby were named for Daniel Moseley (1787-1856), who took over the service in 1849 and whose family ran it until 1868. Other ferrymen continued to transport travelers, livestock, and freight across the river until 1912, when the Houston & Texas Central (now the Southern Pacific) constructed a railroad bridge at this location. Today a highway bridge spans the Brazos where Moseley's Ferry once operated. (1975)