Antebellum Jefferson, Texas: Everyday Life in an East Texas Town

6. Development

93 Maps Jefferson has never encompassed all of Allen Urquhart’s headright , which extended from Big Cypress Bayou on the south to Black Cypress Bayou on the north. The midpoint of Urquhart’s land was approximately on the line of present-day Broadway Street. Of the five maps of Jefferson that were produced prior to the Civil War, the third and fourth in time (1847 and 1848) were devoted to the Alley Addition. The first, which was the 1844 Jesse Cherry town plan, represented only Urquhart property and was devoted to an area well below this midpoint line. The fourth, prepared by John Eppinger in 1850, extended slightly north of this line. Only the second, prepared by Hugh Hensey in 1846, extended a substantial distance north of this line, encompassing about three-fourths of the Urquhart headright; but this was a special purpose map that only accentuates the fact that all early maps represented the developmental potentials of the town as much more restricted than what would be suggested by the upper boundary of Urquhart’s headright. All of these maps provide numbers for blocks and lots, because their primary purpose was to serve as a reference for land transactions. They are best understood in relation to a contemporary Lots and Blocks Map, which can be seen at the city hall or at the courthouse. Hugh Hensey’s January 5, 1846, Plan of the Town of Jefferson deals only with the Urquhart property (Fig. 6-1). A copy of this map can 6. DeveloPment 94 Antebellum Jefferson, Texas be seen on pages 194–198 of the Transcribed Deed Records. This is a photographic copy of a five-page hand-drawn map in the basement vault of the Marion County courthouse, which contains the original Transcribed Deed Records. The hand-drawn map is a transcription of an original five-page hand-drawn map in the vault of the Cass County courthouse in Linden. Fig. 6-1. Hensey 1846 95 Development There does not appear to have ever been a single hand-drawn map, as is suggested by the fact that street names are repeated on subsequent pages. It was prepared by a professional surveyor to record the determinations of the commission that had been appointed to resolve the land dispute between Urquhart and Durham and apparently was prepared in five sheets so that it could be recorded in the deed records. The determinations were placed on Hensey’s base map by the commissioners, which is why the map contains more than one style of writing. The initial part of the commissioners’ report and the map bear the same date, and the map and final commissioners’ report were filed in March 1847, indicating that the map was intended as a legal document . The map shows a Court House Square on the south fronting Jackson Street and, farther south and abutting the survey line, a Public Grave Yard. The western channel around St. Catherine’s Island is clearly delineated , and the island does not contain any lot or block designations. There is a double-dashed line running from the foot of Polk Street to the foot of Rusk Street. This is not a road, trail, or levee, but rather an indication of the ridge line along the floodplain of Cypress Bayou. No ferry is shown at the foot of Houston Street because the ferry did not enter into the property dispute. The Hensey map, as is emphasized in the caption, does not encompass the whole of Urquhart’s headright, but rather about three-fourths, with the northern boundary at the present-day Howell Addition. This is not a property ownership map, but rather a property allocation map. For example, Durham had sold many lots in Jefferson by January 1846. These lots are not designated by their owners, but rather by the letter “S,” which indicates that the lot had been sold by Durham. In addition, the allocations shown on the map were made between January 1846 and March 1847, so the map cannot be used to identify ownership at any particular point in time. The commissioners’ task was to provide an equitable distribution of properties in the light of the January 1843 sale by Urquhart of 160 acres to Durham and subsequent land transactions in which Urquhart did not play any part. The base for these distributions was the set of lots previously sold by Durham and the money still owed...