Rawlins Homestead

Duane's take

The official marker's the source here; I'm just the one bringin' it to life for you. Now, picture North Texas, 1845. A man named Roderick Rawlins, the elder, mind you, because this family was not done makin' Rodericks, settles himself into this stretch of land between what would become two of the bigger names on the Texas map: Dallas and Waxahachie.

Right there in the middle. Literally halfway between them, as it turns out. That's not a small detail.

That's the whole geography of this story. The elder Rawlins puts down roots, and then comes his son, Roderick A. Rawlins, born 1833.

Young Roderick does something that probably raised an eyebrow or two in the neighborhood: he goes and marries his teacher. Her name was Virginia Bledsoe, and she was the daughter of the founder of Lancaster. So the boy married up in just about every direction you can measure.

By 1855, the two of them started building a house right here on the family land. A home. A real one.

And things were looking settled and fine. Then came 1861. Roderick A.

Rawlins went off to serve as a Confederate officer. Four years of war, 1861 to 1865, and whatever that house had been when he left, it needed rebuilding when he came back. Captain Rawlins, as he was known by then, did not patch it or make do.

He rebuilt it. And he did it in the Greek Revival style (the popular choice of the era) all columns and clean lines and a kind of dignified stubbornness that says: I was here before, and I intend to keep bein' here. And that house stood.

Halfway between Waxahachie and Dallas, right where travelers on the road between those two places would be gettin' thirsty and tired. Word got around, the way it does in flat country where shade is precious and water's more so; there's a well at the Rawlins place. You can stop.

You can drink. Sometimes you can camp. Roderick A.

Rawlins lived until 1910. That house outlasted war, outlasted rebuilding, outlasted the captain himself. And it still stands as a marker of what it meant to plant yourself firmly in the Texas middle ground and hold.

What the marker says

In 1845 Roderick Rawlins the elder settled this area. His son Roderick A. Rawlins (1833 - 1910) married his teacher, Virginia Bledsoe, daughter of the founder of Lancaster. They started this house in 1855. After serving as a Confederate officer during the Civil War (1861-65), Capt. Rawlins rebuilt his home in the popular Greek Revival style. It stood halfway between Waxahachie and Dallas. Travelers obtained water and sometimes camped at its well. RTHL - 1964