Everyone who grew up in and around the South Belt knows Hall Rd.
If your family moved in early, you have memories of it as a dead-end dirt road, wilderness stretching for miles.
If you came later, Hall Rd ending at Blackhawk was where you went to hang out at Skate Ranch. Still seemed like a veritable wilderness, though.
But a century and a half prior, it really was. The land was owned by Mexico and land grants were disbursed to try and both appease unhappy Texians, as well as colonize and reduce Indian threats around the areas of Galveston, Clear Lake, and the South Belt. (The Comanches were particularly fierce.)
In fact, in 1832, it was the slow issuance of these land grants that led to the Confrontation at Anahuac. Colonel Bradburn of Mexico had repeatedly demonstrated contempt for the settlers' attempts to elect a county seat of their choosing and by requiring duties and taxes that were contrary to the 1824 Constitution. These grievances, along with the wrongful arrests of men working on behalf of the colonists, were part of the confrontation. Some historians have likened it to the Texian version of the Boston Tea Party. However, part of their grievances were less than heroic. Bradburn had dared to declare three escaped Louisana slaves, who had come to him for protection, free men. Slavery was outlawed under Mexican law but portions of Texas, thanks to William B. Travis' work, were given exceptions. Bradburn had even given them posts as soldiers in his garrison, instead of returning them to slavery as property of their white owners.
It was an opening salvo in the coming Texas Revolution
Warren D.C. Hall was second in command of the Texian party who marched on Anhuac to demand the freedom of Bradburn's white prisoners, and his removal as Colonel of the district because of his repeated excesses of power.
Hall was eventually rewarded with large tracts of land, including a large portion of the South Belt area, some 130 years before the community of South Belt would begin to take shape.
Read more about the Confrontation at Anahuac here.
Or, if you prefer a more first person and contemporary account, read here.
If your family moved in early, you have memories of it as a dead-end dirt road, wilderness stretching for miles.
If you came later, Hall Rd ending at Blackhawk was where you went to hang out at Skate Ranch. Still seemed like a veritable wilderness, though.
But a century and a half prior, it really was. The land was owned by Mexico and land grants were disbursed to try and both appease unhappy Texians, as well as colonize and reduce Indian threats around the areas of Galveston, Clear Lake, and the South Belt. (The Comanches were particularly fierce.)
In fact, in 1832, it was the slow issuance of these land grants that led to the Confrontation at Anahuac. Colonel Bradburn of Mexico had repeatedly demonstrated contempt for the settlers' attempts to elect a county seat of their choosing and by requiring duties and taxes that were contrary to the 1824 Constitution. These grievances, along with the wrongful arrests of men working on behalf of the colonists, were part of the confrontation. Some historians have likened it to the Texian version of the Boston Tea Party. However, part of their grievances were less than heroic. Bradburn had dared to declare three escaped Louisana slaves, who had come to him for protection, free men. Slavery was outlawed under Mexican law but portions of Texas, thanks to William B. Travis' work, were given exceptions. Bradburn had even given them posts as soldiers in his garrison, instead of returning them to slavery as property of their white owners.
It was an opening salvo in the coming Texas Revolution
Warren D.C. Hall was second in command of the Texian party who marched on Anhuac to demand the freedom of Bradburn's white prisoners, and his removal as Colonel of the district because of his repeated excesses of power.
Hall was eventually rewarded with large tracts of land, including a large portion of the South Belt area, some 130 years before the community of South Belt would begin to take shape.
Thanks to Scott Head for the overlay of the present day Google map of the area with the land grants.
Scott's memories of what is now El Franco Lee park inspired this trek back in time:
Do you remember when El Franco Lee park on Hall road was just a wilderness? I do. Me and my friends used to hunt ducks back there even though the Hall family still owned it (yeah, we were bad). I remembered an old ramshackle of a house near Moore elementary that was right by the water pump and well, right where the little fishing pond is today, across the street from the stables. This house intrigued me. After it was demolished and made a park, I remembered that old house but wasn't sure if it was just my imagination or what. I took my metal detector (being a nerd, although a profitable one) and scoured the site where that house used to be. There are picnic tables there now. In the ground are lots of junk items, parts of plumbing and windows and nails. But I found a little stash buried right by the front door steps, all Mexican coins, buried nicely under a concrete block. Here are some of them. I often wonder who lived there and who buried these 1930s and 40s coins just outside what used to be the door of this old house.
Additional Reading
Read more about the Confrontation at Anahuac here.
Or, if you prefer a more first person and contemporary account, read here.
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