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

34. Stables

463 Horses were the primary means by which people traveled on land, either on horseback or else in carriages and buggies. Horses were sheltered , fed, and cared for in stables, which were attached to private residences and hotels or else were free-standing commercial operations that served the general public. Among the commercial operations, livery stables provided stabling, but also horses and transport vehicles for hire. It was a short step from renting to buying and selling horses, which gave rise to the sale and livery stable. Many people passed through Jefferson on their way from and to New Orleans by steamboat or traveled to Jefferson on business. Stables were essential for the care of horses owned by the traveling public and for the rental of means of conveyance. Hotels that catered to the traveling public had to provide stabling services, which are usually given equal billing with personal accommodations in hotel advertisements. These services could be provided either by a stable run by the hotel or else by a nearby commercial operation. The first commercial stables in Jefferson were two operated by William Russell by at least July 1845. Russell’s lower (or downstream) stable was apparently on Dallas Street on Lot 1 in Block 8, because this lot was quit claimed by Russell to John Speake in 1852. The upper (or upstream) stable was larger and occupied the whole of Lot 7 in Block 74, fronting on Jackson Street at the northeast corner of Jackson and Camp. Russell sold the upper stable and adjacent Lot 8 to A. F. Al34 . Stables 464 Antebellum Jefferson, Texas ford and Thomas Hotchkiss for $1,200 in January 1847. Russell moved the lower stable to Lot 2 in Block 9 sometime before February 1853, when Hotchkiss sold his portion of the lot to John Speake and Clinton Willard. Russell is not mentioned in connection with stables after this point. It is probable that Russell rented horses and buggies, although his operation is not referred to as a livery stable. The second mention of a stable in Jefferson occurs in a December 1846 advertisement for William Perry’s Soda Lake Hotel, which was located on Dallas Street on Lots 4–6 of Block 4. The advertisement mentions “large, airy and commodious” stables connected with the hotel, with care of horses by an experienced person. This stable was immediately across Austin from the hotel and was on Lots 7 and 8 and part of Lot 9 in Block 22, fronting Jackson Street on the northeast corner of Austin and Jackson. It was probably a semi-independent operation , catering to a much larger public than the hotel guests. Although Robert Nesmith is not mentioned specifically in connection with this stable until the 1850s, it is probable that he was the operator from the beginning. Nesmith and Robert Brownell operated the Soda Lake Hotel from at least April 1848 until it was sold by Perry in December 1849 to Stephen Ellis and Joseph Elliott, who changed the name to Jefferson Hotel. Nesmith is mentioned as the manager of the stable in a January 1852 advertisement for the Jefferson Hotel. He purchased the lots on which the stable was located from Nelson Trawick for $700 in January 1853, with clear title given in November of that year. Trawick is never mentioned in connection with stables, and it is obvious from the January 1852 advertisement that Nesmith was operating the stable before he became owner of the property. In a February 1853 advertisement, Nesmith indicated that he had been in the stable business for a long time in both the North and South. He appears in the 1850 census as a 35-year-old farmer born in New Hampshire, with real estate valued at $1,000 and a wife and child. The occupational designation is correct, because Nesmith also operated a farm in Paradise, where he was living in 1850. A November 1853 conveyance from Allen Urquhart to Amos Ury concerning Lots 1–3 in Block 22 mentions that the house on the property had been occupied by Ury, but was at that time occupied by Nesmith. This property, 465 Stables which was not owned by Nesmith, was on the quadrant immediately to the northeast of the stable. During the late 1840s, the stable was probably only devoted to the care of horses. It became a sale and livery stable in January 1852, when the advertisement...