Old Hico

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's what happened on this bend of Honey Creek. Back in 1856, a handful of families came to a particular spot in Hamilton County and decided, right here, this is the place. The settlement of Hico began on this very site.

The Andersons, the Fullers, the Barbees, the Malones, the Steens. John Q. Anderson was among the first.

M. A. Fuller.

J. G. Barbee.

James R. and Henry Fuller. Isaac Steen. Isaac and Thomas Malone.

You can almost picture the creek runnin', the land spread out, and a small clutch of families staking their claim on it. No fanfare. Just roots going down.

Then, four years on, in 1860, a merchant by the name of John R. Alford stepped into the role of the settlement's first postmaster. First one.

That's the kind of detail that tells you a place has crossed a threshold, when someone is officially responsible for handling your mail, you've become a community. Now here's the part that sticks with me. This marker, this memorial standing at the site of Old Hico, wasn't built from some quarried stone hauled in from somewhere distant.

The rocks used to erect it came from the ruins of the old mill. The same settlement, in a way, building its own monument out of its own bones. Honey Creek keeps runnin'.

The names are set in stone, and that stone came from right here.

What the marker says

This site on Honey Creek marks the beginning in 1856 of the settlement of Hico. Earliest families to locate here were those of John Q. Anderson, M. A. Fuller, J. G. Barbee, James R. and Henry Fuller, Isaac Steen, Isaac and Thomas Malone. In 1860 John R. Alford, a merchant, became the first postmaster. Rocks from ruins of the old mill were used in the erection of this memorial.