Site of Chesser Valley Community

Duane's take

Now, this one comes straight from the official marker, and I'm gonna tell it to you the way it deserves to be told. Somewhere just off this road lies a valley that carries one family's name, and the story of how a log home became the beating heart of an entire community, well, it's the kind of thing that takes a minute to sink in. This is Chesser Valley.

Pull up a seat by the fire. John Dan Chesser was born in Missouri in 1842, and when he was just a boy his family packed up and moved to Texas, arriving in 1854. By 1860 he had married Elizabeth Caroline Epley, a Tennessean, also born in 1842.

They started their life together over in Burnet, Texas. Then came the Civil War, and John Dan served in the Texas State Troops. When that chapter closed, the Chessers did what a lot of folks in this part of the world were inclined to do.

They moved. They found their ground in this valley, in what was then part of Brown County, and they homesteaded 160 acres of it. Now, a log home can be a humble thing.

But the Chesser home was something else entirely. As their family grew, and it grew considerably, eleven children, the house grew with it. And somewhere along the way it stopped being just a house.

Travelers coming along the Williams Ranch Road found it served as a hotel. When sickness came to the valley, it served as a hospital. On Sundays, and on those holy, expectant evenings when the need arose, it served as a church.

Entire families came from miles around, camped out beneath a grove of Live Oak trees, and gathered under a tabernacle near the Chesser house for camp meetings of prayer and preaching. You have to picture that. Lanterns in the oaks.

Voices carrying across 160 acres of Texas valley. By 1868 there was a one-teacher school to serve the children of the area. Then in 1887, Mills County was carved out of Brown County, and the new county commissioners court recognized the school district and designated it District No. 8.

The people who settled around the Chessers were not strangers. They were friends and family, drawn to the valley the same way people are always drawn to a place where someone they trust has already put down roots. John Dan Chesser lived until 1914.

Elizabeth Caroline Epley Chesser lived until 1924. And it was in 1926, just two years after Elizabeth was gone, that the Chesser house, the nucleus of everything that had grown up around that family, burned. By the time the 21st century arrived, only one original structure from the settlement period remained standing in the valley.

One. The name is still on the land. The valley is still called Chesser Valley.

And this marker, standing near that same ground, makes sure the story doesn't disappear with the house.

What the marker says

Near this site is the Chesser Valley, named for early settler John Dan Chesser, whose home became the focal point of a small rural community by the same name. Missouri native John Dan Chesser (1842-1914) moved to Texas with his family in 1854 and married Tennessean Elizabeth Caroline Epley (1842-1924) in 1860. They first lived in Burnet, Texas, but moved to this part of the state after Chesser's service in the Texas State Troops during the Civil War. The Chesser's homesteaded 160 acres of land in the valley in what was then part of Brown County. They expanded their log home as their family grew to number 11 children. It served as a church, hospital and hotel for travelers along the Williams Ranch Road. Chesser Valley was the site of frequent camp meetings. Entire families came from miles away to camp out in a grove of Live Oak trees and attend prayer and preaching services under a tabernacle near the Chesser house. A one-teacher school began in 1868 to serve the children in the area around Chesser Valley. After Mills County was created out of Brown County in 1887, the new county commissioners court recognized the school district and designated it as District No. 8. Those who settled the Chesser Valley community were primarily friends and family of John Dan and Elizabeth Chesser. The Chesser house, which had been the nucleus of the community, burned in 1926, and by the dawn of the 21st century, only one original structure remained from the period of the valley's settlement.