DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'll tell it to you. Once upon a Texas riverbank, somebody had big dreams. Big enough to carve out 86 blocks and not one but two public squares right here along the water.
That was 1838, and the men behind it — James Morgan, Arthur Garner, and Thomas Bradley — were the proprietors of what they intended to be a proper town. And for a while, friend, it looked like they might just be right. The place had a name with some weight to it: Swartwout.
Named in honor of Samuel Swartwout, a New York speculator and politician born in 1783 who, back in 1836, had advanced funds to the Texas government. Now that's the kind of gesture that gets a town named after you. Eighty-six blocks and two public squares' worth of gratitude, laid out in a Texas river bend.
Before the Civil War, this spot hummed. Steamboats came and went — Swartwout was an important landing, the kind of place where goods and news and all manner of humanity passed through on the current. You can almost hear the bells and the churning paddles if you stand quiet enough.
But towns have a way of fading when the rivers stop working in their favor, and Swartwout's moment as a steamboat landmark eventually gave way to something quieter — a ferry crossing. Humbler than a steamboat landing, sure, but still useful, still connecting one bank to the other, still serving the people who needed to get from here to there. That ferry kept crossing until 1930.
Samuel Swartwout himself lived until 1856, and whatever became of his New York politics and speculations, his name held on here long after the steamboats went silent and the ferry finally tied up for the last time. Eighty-six blocks, two public squares, and a whole lot of river water under the bridge.
What the marker says
86 blocks and 2 public squares were laid out here in 1838 with James Morgan, Arthur Garner and Thomas Bradley as proprietors. Named in honor of Samuel Swartwout (1783-1856), New York speculator and politician who advanced funds in 1836 to the Texas government. Important steamboat landing before the Civil War. Ferry crossing until 1930. Erected by the State of Texas 1936