It was time for Pat and I to run away again. Pat and I have been friends since junior high and through all the years we have had fun any time we get together....our friendship has never grown stale, never grown old, never ceased to be a delightful encounter each time we get together. I love my friend and I'm so blessed to have her and her husband in my life.
This time we headed to Brenham, Texas and the surrounding Washington County area. Walt and I both agree it is one of the, if not the, most beautiful counties in the state. We did our homework and chose a B&B that seemed to have everything we were looking for...ya know what, it did and a whole lot more. Jim and Susan made us feel like family coming for a visit, treated us like the queens we are, and saw us off at the end of the stay with leftover cookies for the trip. HIGHLY recommend The Brenham House Bed & Breakfast! So let me show you around there a little bit and then we will hit the road.
Isn't it the cutest little house?? Notice the Yard of the Month sign in the middle of the flowers. We knew we were going to like this by just pulling up in front.
The house itself was built in the 1920's on the foundation of the the first German Lutheran Church of Brenham. The church was destroyed during the great storm of the 1900's leaving only the lime stone steps (see them?)
We were warmly greeted by our host and hostess, lovely people that you instantly have known all your life.
The long hall to our room is lined with photos of their families - grandparents, parents, themselves and others throughout the year. They are willing to point out the different family members and tell you their stories. This shot was taken from our end of the hall looking toward the front door - the carpet is original and Jim says Susan babies it.
Our bedroom, called The Bluebonnet Room. I didn't take a picture of our deeeeeeep claw foot tub in the bathroom, however, I did take a picture of the toilet paper. Weird woman runs around Texas taking pictures of toilet paper. LOL. I just thought the spare rolls were too cute all gussied up.
Our little sitting area in the room.
We had a private entrance and it was decorated up too. Little touches like this throughout the house and lawn really added to the charm.
We put our bags down freshened up a bit, grabbed some of the brochures they had available and headed to Independence just north of Brenham.
"Sweet village! Thou loveliest spot of earth to me"
---Margaret Lea Houston, November 1855
Independence is a little bitty community, but it is full of history. Baylor University began here in 1845 (claiming to be the earliest college in Texas - disputed by Southwestern University in Georgetown which claims to have been founded in 1840). Whichever, both are still excellent universities to this day.
Since we are in Independence and not Georgetown we will focus on Baylor ... Sorry, Pat (alum of Southwestern).
The columns above are what are left of the original campus. Entering freshmen still assemble during the Baylor Line Camp to visit the grounds of the birthplace of their school.
The below photo is what it looked like back in the day. Quite the building!
The below photo is what it looked like back in the day. Quite the building!
Looking out of the arch from the front and from the back - I like shoot throughs when they work (more about that in a bit....grrrrr)
Some of these, like this one with the funny border I took on a previous trip (with Walt) so I didn't reshoot them this trip. The arch and the fence haven't changed :)
It was a bit amusing that this trip the above gate was closed and locked, but if you walked around the fence there was a whole panel out allowing you access to the archway and the stacks. Promise I did not climb the fence or anything...
In 1851 the college split the boys and the girls up, moving the boys to nearby Windy Hill. The girls continued classes here and stayed in dormitories close by. All that remains of the dormitory is the dining hall ruins.
The brochure said that from here there was a leisurely walk to a historic cemetery. Pat and I both enjoy walking around in the older cemeteries so we were all for that. At this point it was getting quite warm (we are in Texas after all) so we decided to drive it as far as we could. And we drove, and we drove, and we argued that yes we were going right and no we hadn't passed it....and we drove. Probably a mile and a half up a road that wasn't so scenic that walking would have been preferable we reached the cemetery.
to the Memory of
J. P. Coles Judge of
Washington Coun
ty. Was born in Born in Bo
ann County State
of N.C. In the year
A.D. 1795 who depart
this life on
the 19 of January
A.D. 1817 in the
51 year of his
life
Moses Austin requested an empresarial (fancy word for a business or corporation) from the governor of Spanish Texas, Antonio Maria Martinez, in 1790 but was refused and in fact ordered out of the territory. As he was leaving he met an old buddy, Felipe Enrique Neri, Baron de Bastrop. Bastrop had a bit of pull and convinced the governor to allow Austin to bring 300 families into the territory. He, Austin, was heading home to Missouri when he was attacked by highwaymen and severely beaten. Shortly after his arrival in Missouri he died, leaving the empresarial to his son Stephen F. Austin. The 297 who followed Austin to Texas were given land grants and became known as the Old 300.
J.P. Coles was one of those 297 that followed Stephen Austin to Texas. In fact Independence was first called Coles Settlement after Judge Coles. It was changed in honor of the declaration of Texas Independence.
Side note to this history -
The Texas Declaration of Independence was produced, literally, overnight. Its urgency was paramount, because while it was being prepared, the Alamo in San Antonio was under seige by Santa Anna's army of Mexico.
Immediately upon the assemblage of the Convention of 1836 on March 1, in Washington-on-the-Brazos, a committee of five of its delegates were appointed to draft the document. The committee, consisting of George C. Childress, Edward Conrad, James Gaines, Bailey Hardeman, and Collin McKinney, prepared the declaration in record time. It was briefly reviewed, then adopted by the delegates of the convention the following day.
Gen. James Willie
Born in Georgia
Jan. 5, 1822
Died in Houston, Texas
1863
Attorney General
of Texas, 1856-7
Officer in the
Confederate Army
James Willie was born in Washington, Georgia and moved to the Independence area to live with his uncle (Asa Hoxie - instrumental in having the town name changed to Independence). Both the Hoxies and the Willies were also instrumental in naming Washington-on-the-Brazos, not after Washington D.C. or even George Washington, but after their hometown in Georgia.
He practiced law in Brenham, and was appointed Attorney General in 1856 and while holding that office was instructed by the governor to review and arrange the laws of the state of Texas. In 1860 he joined the Confederate Army and served until 1863 when he became ill and returned to Houston. Shortly thereafter he passed away.
The grave of Sam Houston's son Samuel Houston, Jr.
(around our house General Sam is THE man to some)
Looking around and found the little guy above taking a sun bath on top of a tombstone; to the right was a fun growth in a tree...looks like a little critter poking his nose out of the split, doesn't it?
At first the newly formed church held services where ever they could congregate. The first church building was built before September 30, 1879 when a notice in the paper stated that "the colored people here have got nearly lumber enough to build a new church, and will put it up near the site of their present one.” It is believed that two storms blew the church building down in 1882 and again in 1900.
A school for African American children was built adjacent to the church and was in operation until the 1920's when a new school was erected. The church is still in operation today and raises money by selling their famous BBQ at special events.
Throughout the community there were treasures to be found...some easy as the church others hiding in the bushes.
This one was the old Lueckemeyer Cotton Gin constructed in the late 1920's. The gin operated until the mid-1970 s and was demolished in the early 1980s. The buildings that remain today were originally constructed with stones from the Baylor campus site.
Speaking of the Lueckemeyer Store, that is where we had lunch. We had lunch here mainly because there was no where else to eat and we were hungry, hot and thirsty. It, too, was built with stones from the Baylor campus and was built in 1939.
Our chopped BBQ sandwiches (served from a crockpot) were excellent - not sure if any of the below ingredients were used or not...
The guard dog kept one eye open to make sure we only got one bag of chips and one drink each, otherwise he might have to rouse long enough to growl or something.
A little better preserved than some of the treasures I found are the early Texas homes, originally built a short distance from this location. The Independence Historical Society moved them close to the Baylor columns to make them available to the public and to easily care for them. Judge Coles house is the first one shown, the others are indicative of the architecture in the area. The last one is actually the old Gay Hill School.
This one is the home of Mrs. Sam Houston and 7 of their 8 children. The home was built in the 1850s. She moved into this home permanently after General Sam's death in 1863. She lived in this house until her death in 1867 during the Yellow Fever epidemic. Houston descendents owned the house until 1983.
SINCE THIS WAS CLOSED!!!!!!
We decided that it was time to visit the Antique Rose Emporium who surely would have a restroom.
The grounds sit on 8 acres and is a combination of nursery, gift shop and theme gardens. The brochure states that these roses are actual descendants of plants from more than 2000 years ago.
From their website they tell their story of how this business began. " In 1982, while returning from a delivery and taking an unaccustomed route back to the nursery, one of my co-workers chanced upon a huge rose covering a chain link fence. He made an unauthorized "rustle," brought back flowers and cuttings, and urged me to go see it." Following are photos taken there September 20.
The shade caught the sign wrong but it reads:
Free Weeds
Pick your own
Donations
Crabgrass
And this last one is called....JERK! Well it is better than my usual saying when someone does this.
He walked by me, looked at me working on a shoot through - perfect dogtrot house with beautiful scenery behind and nice foreground. He looked and he walked right up there and stood, and stood, and stood. I finally took this shot and moved on....and as soon as I was good and gone he moved. JERK!
That ended our day and we headed back to The Brenham House After checking the extensive notebook of menus for local restaurants we went to Yumm for salads and breadsticks and then back to house for some relaxation.
One reason she is still my bestest friend ever - she can open a wine bottle like a pro!!
Stay tuned for more Brenham House, Chappell Hill and who knows what else we found down those back roads that whispered to us....
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