DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Gault Homestead, out in Travis County. Now settle in, because this one's got layers. It starts — as so many Texas stories do — with a land grant.
Three hundred and twenty acres, awarded to a man named J. P. Whelin as payment for his service to the Republic of Texas Army.
That's not a small thing. That's the Republic saying, here's your piece of this new country, go make something of it. Well, Whelin took the land... and then sold it.
Can't say the man didn't act fast. The next owner was Nathaniel C. Raymond, and Raymond, two years after that, sold it along to a man named John M.
Gault. Now Gault — Gault is the name that sticks. In the 1850s, he built a log cabin on what had been the Whelin grant, and he and his family put down roots, started a farm, did the whole thing.
Then in 1855 they purchased the adjoining land from a Captain Nelson Merrill, and soon thereafter — on that new tract — built themselves a larger home. Two properties, two homes, one family putting their mark on this corner of Travis County. John M.
Gault died about 1865 and was buried in Merrilltown Cemetery. The homestead stayed in his family for nearly three more decades after that, until 1892, when it was sold to William and Edna Graves. The Graves kept it as tenant property for a number of years, and somewhere along the way, that original log cabin got enlarged — a board-and-batten addition going up alongside the old logs.
Old and new, side by side. Then R. C.
Cox acquired the property in 1929, and his family lived in that cabin straight through the following decade. After that it passed through a succession of owners — the marker doesn't name 'em all, and sometimes that's just how history goes. By the 1980s, the Gault homestead had become part of a modern housing development.
New roads, new rooftops, a whole different world pressing in around it. But it remains standing. A reminder of the Merrilltown community, of the county's early rural heritage — and of a family that farmed this land when Texas itself was still findin' its footing.
What the marker says
Included as part of a 320-acre land grant awarded to J. P. Whelin in payment for his service to the Republic of Texas Army, this property has had a long and varied history. Soon after he was granted the land, Whelin sold it to Nathaniel C. Raymond, who in turn sold it to John M. Gault two years later. Gault built a log cabin on the Whelin grant in the 1850s, and he and his family established a farm. In 1855 they purchased adjoining land from Captain Nelson Merrill and soon thereafter built a larger home on that tract of land. Gault died about 1865 and was buried in Merrilltown Cemetery. The homestead property remained in his family until 1892, when it was sold to William and Edna Graves. They maintained the Gault homestead as tenant property for a number of years, during which the original cabin was enlarged with a board-and-batten addition. R. C. Cox acquired the property in 1929, and his family lived in the cabin through the following decade. After a succession of owners, the Gault homestead became part of a modern housing development in the 1980s. It remains as a reminder of the Merrilltown community and of the county's early rural heritage. (1990)