DUANE
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