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Chapter 1: Tangled Family Roots
- University of North Texas Press
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1 A lthough Jim Ferguson and Miriam Wallace lived only a few miles from each other as children, in lifestyles they were worlds apart. Their family roots were slightly intertwined, but it seems that their paths seldom crossed until they were young adults. Each was born to a hardy pioneer family in Bell County in the final years of the state’s Reconstruction period, and raised in a rural environment typical of that era. However, for the most part, the similarities in their lives ended there. Bell County, near the center of Texas but slightly east, benefits from at least one enduring source of recorded history from its earliest days. The son of one of the original pioneers in the area, Judge George W. Tyler was born in 1851 in what would later become neighboring Coryell County (formed 1854). He attended Salado College and received a law degree from Lebanon Law School in Tennessee before setting up a private practice in Belton. During his long life, Tyler accumulated a vast collection of notes and documents that pertained to life in early Bell County. Possessing an interest in local history, Tyler surely used his career in law, his public service as a State Senator from 1888 to 1892, and his extensive community involvement, as opportunities to expand his assemblage of data. Compiled and edited by Charles W. Ramsdell after Tyler’s death in 1927, this collection of notes became the basis for a book titled, History of Bell County. This work, first published in 1936, chronicles the days when the first white settlers came to the area to carve out new lives in virtual isolation. In the preface, the author speaks of the “gifts of nature” that blessed the land and attracted the newcomers. These gifts included resilient farmland and plentiful water sources which were essential elements for the early settlers who came in search of cheap acreage. Tyler tells of the junction of three streams that came to be known as the Three Forks at Little River, the county’s most prominent landmark. The Leon, the Lampasas and the Salado converge to form the Little River, a fertile area that attracted Indians, Spaniards, and Chapter 1 Tangled Family Roots 2 In the Governor’s Shadow later, white settlers. The abundance of stories about Indian conflicts with Anglo settlers included in Tyler’s writing, offers evidence of the early clashing of these overlapping cultures. 1 Listed among the names of the founding families that settled this vast county are both Ferguson and Wallace, each appearing several times in Tyler’s account of Bell County’s formative years. 2 Most Bell County settlers logically staked their claims near the spring or river’s edge, where timber and grasses were abundant and the soil rich. The Wallace and Ferguson families followed that course with differing degrees of success. Small communities emerged from the joint efforts of those early settlers, often beginning with churches and makeshift schools. One of the first of these to materialize in Bell County was Nolandsville (also sometimes shown as Nolanville), established in 1850 and later renamed Belton. Belton was, and still is, the county seat, and for many years was the dominant city in the county. One local historian later referred to Belton with the befitting title of the “Grandma of Bell County.” 3 If Beltoncouldbecalledthegrandmotherofthecounty,Salado,someninemiles south, would certainly be considered one of her oldest children. An ambitious plan to build a great school on a hill overlooking the picturesque Salado Creek spawned the development of the Salado community. That plan came to fruition in 1860 when founders incorporated the stately structure under the name Salado College, a name that is misleading, at least by today’s standard. The fine school included elementary levels but was, in reality, a preparatory school and not a college. 4 With the prestigious institution serving as a keystone, the Salado community quickly developed. Enterprising settlers tapped the area’s environmental gifts such as the fast-moving waters of Salado Creek that were ideal for powering mills. These milling services were important to local farmers but also increased commerce by attracting farmers from surrounding counties. The community enjoyed roughly two decades of rapid growth and prosperity before its exclusion from railroad routes halted its progress and sent its population into a decline. Salado was an important and progressive town during its heyday and its citizens made a valuable contribution to the developing Bell County. The emphasis that Salado founders put on education...