Ragsdale-Jackman-Yarbrough House

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's the story of the Ragsdale-Jackman-Yarbrough House in Hays County. Now, some houses just sit there. This one has lived.

It starts in 1868, when a man named Peter C. Ragsdale put this place up. Ragsdale wasn't just any settler; he was a veteran of the army of the Republic of Texas.

That's a man who'd seen Texas before it was Texas, so to speak. He was born in 1810, and he built this house, and for a while, that was enough of a story. But Peter Ragsdale died in 1882, and here's where the house gets interesting.

His wife, Elmira, didn't fold up her hands and wait for something to happen. She opened a school for girls, right there in that house, and she kept it running until 1891. Think about that.

A house built by a Republic of Texas veteran becomes a schoolhouse for young women. The walls didn't just hold a family; they held classrooms. Then in 1891, the house sold, and the next owner walked in carrying a biography that could fill a whole stretch of Texas highway on its own.

William T. Jackman (and folks around Hays County called him Uncle Billy) was born in 1851 and he'd spent the 1870s and 1880s driving cattle all the way to Kansas. Trail driving to Kansas.

That is not a soft life. But Uncle Billy wasn't done accumulating titles. He served as sheriff of Hays County from 1892 all the way to 1912; twenty years with a badge in that county, which is the kind of tenure that tells you something about a man.

After that, he became postmaster of San Marcos, from 1913 to 1920. And then, as if to put a bow on a life well spent on the trail, he served as president of the Trail Drivers Association from 1931 to 1937. Uncle Billy Jackman, born 1851, died 1939; he outlasted most everything and apparently most everyone.

The house passed on again, and by 1947 it was Mr. and Mrs. Yancy Yarbrough (local educators, both of them) who took it on and restored it. Teachers, looking after a house that once sheltered a school.

There's a poetry to that you don't have to reach for. One house. Built in 1868.

A Republic of Texas veteran, a girls' school, a trail driver turned lawman turned postmaster turned association president, and finally, a restoration by educators who understood what old walls are worth. That house has been a lot of things, and every one of them mattered.

What the marker says

Built in 1868 by Peter C. Ragsdale (1810-1882), veteran of the army of the Republic of Texas. After his death, his wife, Elmira, operated a school for girls until the house sold in 1891 to William T. (Uncle Billy) Jackman (1851-1939), trail driver to Kansas (1870s-80s), sheriff of Hays County (1892-1912), postmaster of San Marcos (1913-1920), president of Trail Drivers Association (1931-1937). Restored 1947 by Mr. and Mrs. Yancy Yarbrough, local educators. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1972