In Texas I live just about as far southwest as possible to still claim residence in Leon County. To get to this place from the east or the west, you travel the Old San Antonio Road (SH OSR). Less than one mile east of my county road stands one of the several markers placed by the Daughters of the American Revolution and the State of Texas in 1918, dedicated to this historic road.
This part of Texas has some historical significance, although scant evidence remains as testimony to anything that happened around here before the early 1900s. Like all Texas counties, Leon did produce one of the history books as part of the Sesquicentennial in 1986, and I’ve just rediscovered that there is a lot of history recorded for Leon, which was carved out of Robertson County in 1846, one year after Texas became part of the United States. Scores of local cemeteries do bear witness to early settlers, mostly of the late nineteenth century. A quick glance of a website devoted to Leon cemeteries documents family names, places, and of course, references to the Bible—Bailey, Bateman, Beaver Dam, Bethel, Bethesda, Boggy.
The Old San Antonio Road has its rightful place in Texas history. Also known as Camino Real, Spanish for King’s Highway, “It served as a lifeline for the missions (of East Texas) by enabling the transport of freight supplies and military protection, and it facilitated trade,” according to the Handbook of Texas. Further, from the Handbook, “During the eighteenth century Spanish ranchers conducted cattle drives along the route from points in Texas to the annual fair in Saltillo, Coahuila. In addition to being an avenue of commerce, the road enabled immigration. Moses Austin traversed the trail en route to San Antonio to request an empresario grant from the Spanish government in 1820, and many Anglo-American colonists entered Texas at Gaines Ferry on the Sabine and arrived at Nacogdoches and the interior of Texas over the road.”
According to the history books, Leon County is named for Mexican empresario Martin De Leon. However, also according to the history books, there is some claim among locals that the county is named for a yellow wolf of this region commonly called the león ("lion" in Spanish). I can almost guarantee that you’d have to look long and hard for someone in these parts who knows that tidbit of local history.
One of the gems of Leon County is its historical Renaissance Revival courthouse, built of locally-made brick in 1886. Two courthouse structures pre-dated it, one built in 1847 and the other in 1858, which is the prototype of the current building. Because of efforts by the Texas Historic Commission through its courthouse preservation program, many public structures around Texas have been given new life, and Leon County has been one of the beneficiaries of that program.
Recently I made the 30-plus mile trip to the county seat to conduct business at the courthouse, accompanied by a couple of friends. While there we cast our vote early in the Texas Primary 2008, and we toured the restored courthouse. As hard as I can be on this county, with it’s abundance of dirt roads that become hog wallows after heavy rains, its lion’s share of Bible belt mentality and conservative politics, illegal drug activity, and small-town political corruption serious enough to be under prosecution by the Texas Attorney General’s office, I am truly awed and so appreciative that Leon was able to come up with matching funds to restore the sweetest courthouse building in Texas (IMHO).
This weekend we celebrate the independence of Texas—March 2, 1836. Maybe we’re just as much the ragtag lot that populated this land when those brave men gave their lives at the Alamo 172 years. My thanks, on this date especially, are for people everywhere, but especially here in Texas, who see the value of honoring and preserving our historic past. Unlike some people who respond, “Aw, the Alamo, been there, done that,” I will never tire of our shrine to Texas independence. I don’t want to lose the thrill of revisiting my past. Entire towns, buildings, artifacts, roads where only granite markers remind us of our history, whatever treasures we are blessed to have, for these I give thanks. “I live just off OSR. You don’t know about the Old San Antonio Road?” Let the history lesson begin.
Old San Antonio Road—Normangee, Texas (March 1, 2008)
R. Harold Hollis
This part of Texas has some historical significance, although scant evidence remains as testimony to anything that happened around here before the early 1900s. Like all Texas counties, Leon did produce one of the history books as part of the Sesquicentennial in 1986, and I’ve just rediscovered that there is a lot of history recorded for Leon, which was carved out of Robertson County in 1846, one year after Texas became part of the United States. Scores of local cemeteries do bear witness to early settlers, mostly of the late nineteenth century. A quick glance of a website devoted to Leon cemeteries documents family names, places, and of course, references to the Bible—Bailey, Bateman, Beaver Dam, Bethel, Bethesda, Boggy.
The Old San Antonio Road has its rightful place in Texas history. Also known as Camino Real, Spanish for King’s Highway, “It served as a lifeline for the missions (of East Texas) by enabling the transport of freight supplies and military protection, and it facilitated trade,” according to the Handbook of Texas. Further, from the Handbook, “During the eighteenth century Spanish ranchers conducted cattle drives along the route from points in Texas to the annual fair in Saltillo, Coahuila. In addition to being an avenue of commerce, the road enabled immigration. Moses Austin traversed the trail en route to San Antonio to request an empresario grant from the Spanish government in 1820, and many Anglo-American colonists entered Texas at Gaines Ferry on the Sabine and arrived at Nacogdoches and the interior of Texas over the road.”
According to the history books, Leon County is named for Mexican empresario Martin De Leon. However, also according to the history books, there is some claim among locals that the county is named for a yellow wolf of this region commonly called the león ("lion" in Spanish). I can almost guarantee that you’d have to look long and hard for someone in these parts who knows that tidbit of local history.
One of the gems of Leon County is its historical Renaissance Revival courthouse, built of locally-made brick in 1886. Two courthouse structures pre-dated it, one built in 1847 and the other in 1858, which is the prototype of the current building. Because of efforts by the Texas Historic Commission through its courthouse preservation program, many public structures around Texas have been given new life, and Leon County has been one of the beneficiaries of that program.
Recently I made the 30-plus mile trip to the county seat to conduct business at the courthouse, accompanied by a couple of friends. While there we cast our vote early in the Texas Primary 2008, and we toured the restored courthouse. As hard as I can be on this county, with it’s abundance of dirt roads that become hog wallows after heavy rains, its lion’s share of Bible belt mentality and conservative politics, illegal drug activity, and small-town political corruption serious enough to be under prosecution by the Texas Attorney General’s office, I am truly awed and so appreciative that Leon was able to come up with matching funds to restore the sweetest courthouse building in Texas (IMHO).
This weekend we celebrate the independence of Texas—March 2, 1836. Maybe we’re just as much the ragtag lot that populated this land when those brave men gave their lives at the Alamo 172 years. My thanks, on this date especially, are for people everywhere, but especially here in Texas, who see the value of honoring and preserving our historic past. Unlike some people who respond, “Aw, the Alamo, been there, done that,” I will never tire of our shrine to Texas independence. I don’t want to lose the thrill of revisiting my past. Entire towns, buildings, artifacts, roads where only granite markers remind us of our history, whatever treasures we are blessed to have, for these I give thanks. “I live just off OSR. You don’t know about the Old San Antonio Road?” Let the history lesson begin.
Old San Antonio Road—Normangee, Texas (March 1, 2008)
R. Harold Hollis
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