Ira C. Camp was a notable figure and slave-holder in Navasota prior to the Civil War. Most of the surviving Bidais were finally expelled to reservations, first on the upper Brazos River, and later in the Oklahoma Territory, by the United States government's general removal program in 1854. In 2000 and 2004, however, Republican George W. Bush took the county with comfortable majorities. Navasota, with an estimated population of 6,637 in 1990, had become an agribusiness center for portions of three counties. Though the population decrease slowed during the 1950s and 1960s, it was not reversed until 1970, by which time the county's population had fallen to 11,855, only 45 percent of the 1900 figure. Many stayed, so that until 1940 Mexicans became the most numerous of the foreign-born groups settling in the county. Jared Groce, the âFather of Texas Agricultureâ and friend of Stephen F. Austin, and somewhat ironically a co-writer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, had brought his veritable army of slaves to Grimes County in the 1820âs, and pioneered the institution of Texas slavery at ⦠For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. He too was the son of an ex-slaveâwho was born in Navasota, Texas, where he is buried. Their presence, in fact, seems to have afforded the Anglo settlers a measure of protection against raids by hostile tribes such as the Comanches and Apaches. The downtown buildings were overrun with lawless ruffians, gamblers, prostitutes, and drunks. For other uses, see, ‡This populated place has portions in adjacent county or counties, ‡This populated place has portions in an adjacent county or counties, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2015", "Geographic Identifiers: 2010 Demographic Profile Data (G001): Navasota city, Texas", "Navasota, Texas Awarded Membership in Union Pacific's Train Town USA Registry", "Day 68 – 73: Cleveland to Austin, TX - Vague Direction", "Navasota memorabilia for municipal building", "Frank Augustus Hamer - Navasota, TX - Statues of Historic Figures on Waymarking.com", https://tea.texas.gov/2017accountability.aspx, The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Means of Ascent, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Navasota,_Texas&oldid=1003452827, Articles with dead external links from April 2020, Articles needing additional references from January 2011, All articles needing additional references, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using infobox settlement with possible area code list, Articles with unsourced statements from March 2017, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2021, Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz area identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 29 January 2021, at 01:40. [citation needed] He served as marshal until 1911. E. L. Blair, Early History of Grimes County (Austin, 1930). What's New? Texas State Highway 105 is the main east–west route that passes through the center of Navasota, leading southwest 25 miles (40 km) to Brenham and east 41 miles (66 km) to Conroe. A 19 percent decrease in county population between 1900 and 1910 was almost entirely attributable to the Black exodus. Over the two succeeding decades peanut cultivation expanded; 327,409 pounds were harvested in 1940 and 215,331 pounds in 1950. The Navasota Rattlers were 3A Div. Handbook of Texas Online, Not until 1910 would Grimes County farms again be as valuable as they had been in 1860. In that year local farmers and ranchers earned $31,796,000, with crop sales accounting for $27,284,000 of that total. Between 1940 and 1969, cattle production increased by an average of almost 25 percent a decade to stand at a historic pinnacle of 79,094 in 1969. Some purchased bottomland on which to raise their own cotton, while others rented their slaves to local landowners. [15] Other attractions include art galleries, the Horlock House Artists-in-Residence program and museum, live music venues, food truck parks and several murals that present great selfie locations for area visitors. By 1890 both had exceeded their 1860 production levels, and almost two thirds of all cropland was planted in cotton. Between 1967 and 1982 the number of manufacturing establishments increased from eighteen to twenty-seven, while the number of persons employed in manufacturing rose in the same period from 200 to 1,400. Memorials: 6,357 added (89% photographed) Share. Cemetery; Photos ; Map; At the Oakland Cemetery side entrance there are two rock columns on either side of driveway. Its name was changed in 1858 to Navasota, a name perhaps derived from the Native American word nabatoto ("muddy water"). Transportation improvements were crucial in the development of the county's postwar economy. The Texas document recounts the hiring, auctions, renting and transferring ownership of slaves. But instead of the chattel slavery of Africans, their concern is an economic system that is a new and more universal form of slavery where individuals are bound to financial institutions by shackles of debt. The city is also home to the Willy 98.7 FM and 1550 AM radio stations, which are owned and managed by Bryan Broadcasting in Bryan, Texas. A Two spas were established in the county around 1850: Kellum Springs, ten miles north of Anderson, and Piedmont Springs, seven miles west of Anderson. Corn and cotton remained by far the most significant crops, with cotton production increasing more than eightfold over its 1850 level, to 18,303 bales. In 1908 Navasota hired noted Texas Ranger Frank Hamer as its sheriff in an effort to "clean up" the town. PAULINE GRICE, 81, was born a slave of John Blackshier, who owned her mother, about 150 slaves, 50 slave children, and a large plantation near Atlanta, Georgia. Excavations along watercourses on the western margins of the county have even yielded a handful of artifacts dating to the late Paleo-Indian period (circa 6500 B.C.). During the twentieth century annual production has seldom approached 2,000 head; in 1987 the figure stood at 1,507. It became part of Montgomery County, which was organized by the Congress of the Republic of Texas in 1837. He sold his property and moved to Texas with a large retinue of slaves in 1858. Navasota suffered a series of disasters in the mid-1860s that severely depleted its population. Anderson, the county seat, is the third-largest town in Grimes County. His example was soon imitated by settlers taking up land nearby. A statue of Mance Lipscomb is now a part of Mance Lipscomb Park, near downtown. Its name was changed in 1858 to ... Navasota was in a sad state. It was there that La Salle was murdered by one of his men. PEOPLE. Though Democrats reoccupied many official positions after 1873, Republican candidates would continue to capture county offices, and, under the party's auspices, Blacks from Grimes County would occupy eight seats in the state legislature between 1871 and 1883. About 23.8% of families and 23.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 34.7% of those under age 18 and 24.0% of those age 65 or over. The Tonkawa Indians were also known to conduct raids in the area in search of game or plunder, and a group of them may have lived briefly in the bottoms of the lower Navasota River. The insurgency died in the mid-1880s with the demise of the Greenback party, but was revived in 1892, when the increasingly radical Southern Farmers Alliance (see FARMERS' ALLIANCE), which had organized several Grimes County local alliances in the late 1880s, transformed itself into the People's party. In May 1865, as Confederate veterans straggling home congregated in Navasota, a number of soldiers, disgruntled by defeat and the withholding of their pay, looted a warehouse filled with cotton and munitions. reset. During this time a number of black Republican candidates also succeeded in their election efforts. They are unmarked as far as she knows. Slavery may be illegal in the United States, but there are still 58,000 working there in conditions that can only be described as such, according to the Global Slavery Index (GSI). Farm tenancy and the crop-lien system spread rapidly in postwar Grimes County. Support the Handbook today. By the early 1800s perhaps only 100 warriors remained, dwelling in a handful of widely scattered villages along the principal local streams, notably Bedias Creek in what is now northern Grimes and southern Madison counties. The slaves are said to have belonged to John Thomas. The phenomenon of chain migration was conspicuous in this phase of the area's history. The Missouri documents concern the purchase and transferring of ownership of slaves named Nancy, George, Phebe, Washington, Lucinda, Madison, Benjamin, and Sarah. By 1896 the eastern end of this line had been extended through Conroe into the East Texas Piney Woods, facilitating the shipment of lumber and other forest products through Navasota, which easily retained its position as the county's largest town, with a population of 3,857 in 1900. As of 2018, the population of the town was an estimated 7,715 people. Live plays are performed regularly at the Sunny Furman Theatre. [citation needed] A man who spent his entire life in Grimes County, Scott had great charm and political skill. The county is also served by two major railways: the Burlington Northern Santa Fe and the Union Pacific. 1940 Census. Slavery was integral to the local economy. [13] It served as the primary grid for the local high school football team, the Navasota Rattlers, until the new stadium was constructed in 2006. These tribes established homes along the Trinity River on the eastern edge of the Bidai territory; from there they made hunting forays into what is now Grimes County. Between 1982 and 1987, however, corn acreage dwindled from 3,100 acres to 166, and production plummeted to only 7,623 bushels. It is 71 miles (114 km) northwest of Houston. Anderson (population, 232) is the county’s seat of government, and Navasota (7,586) is its largest town. Throughout the Civil War, all the marketable goods produced in the region were brought to Navasota, which at the time was the furthest inland railhead in Texas. In 1992 and 1996 Democrat Bill Clinton won slim pluralities of the area’s voters, partly because Independent candidate Ross Perot ran well in the county in those elections. After the militia arrived, wounded men, including husbands and sons were loaded into their wagons and carried into Navasota and to Houston by train. June 19 is the day when Black people in Texas celebrate the freedom of their Ancestors, our Ancestors, who were held in SLAVERY for approximately two years after the entire nation acknowledged the Emancipation Proclamation. Scott survived long enough to divest his land in the county and to bring a successful lawsuit against every merchant in the county (this was the only way to oppose the secret membership of the WMU; after Nov 7, 1900, a white man trying to do business in the county had to belong to the WMU). [citation needed]. Grimes County Historical Commission, History of Grimes County, Land of Heritage and Progress (Dallas: Taylor, 1982). In 1788 Pedro Vial, searching for the most direct route from Natchitoches to San Antonio, crossed the future county from northeast to southwest, generally following La Bahía trail. Published by the Texas State Historical Association. Beekeeping has been of commercial significance in the county since the 1880s and a number of apiaries remained in production in the 1980s. Navasota was founded by European Americans in 1831 as a stagecoach stop named "Nolansville". For most of the century after 1691, when they first appeared in the records of the Spanish, the Bidais experienced little contact with Europeans. / For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 81.0 males. During the Great Depression, however, cotton cultivation, the lifeblood of the county's nascent industrial sector, was drastically curtailed, and by 1940 only six manufacturing establishments remained. The second is a stone bust that was previously in downtown, and was rededicated by the French consulate in May 2012 at nearby August Horst Park. The scanty archeological evidence recovered to date suggests that human habitation in the territory constituting modern Grimes County began no later than 5000 B.C., during the early phases of the Archaic period (circa 7000 B.C.-A.D. 500). Bradley (Emmett Lee Scott's best friend) shot McDonald in retaliation and was shot in return fire. Planters depended on enslaved African Americans to provide labor for their large cotton plantations. It was there that La Salle was murdered by one of his men. She was the daughter of the ex-enslaved couple, Reuben and Elsa Fagan. The county's adoption of the Old South pattern of plantation agriculture was evident in the census of 1850, which found 1,680 slaves and two free Blacks residing amidst a White population of 2,326. Take a look through our photo library, read reviews from real guests and book now with our Price Guarantee. However, in 1900, the White Man's Union (WMU) began to attack blacks with mobs from Grimes and surrounding counties. Poultry was raised extensively in the county from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s, but annual production fell by 48 percent during the 1950s and then by 77 percent from 1960 to 1970, by which time its value was only $10,000. That year the blacktopping of major thoroughfares began, with the construction of State Highway 90 from Navasota to Madisonville. On the eve of the Civil War the county's agriculture had begun to show signs that it had advanced beyond frontier conditions. In that year the International and Great Northern Railroad completed the town's third major railway, a branch line from Spring to Fort Worth. The Freedmen's Bureau established a court system to dispense justice to the former slaves, protected the freedmen in their exercise of the franchise, and supervised the signing of labor contracts. But the slave owners in Texas ignored this federal law. The slaves were brought to the city and sold in the domestic slave trade. A series of prairies featuring Wilson clay blackland soils runs through the southern part of the county. With almost 40 percent of the county covered by forest, the processing of lumber has been an important economic activity throughout its history; sawmills stand second only to cotton gins in the story of the county's early industrial development. Navasota, Texas, United States You will be minutes from beautiful downtown Navasota, Tx. Think again: Mance Lipscomb, the Texas Songster, was born April 9, 1905, and died January 30, 1976. All campuses received a Met Standard rating from the Texas Education Agency. The 1858 county tax roll listed forty-two residents as holders of twenty or more slaves, the index of wealth often used to define a "planter," while the 1860 census listed seventy-seven individuals owning twenty or more slaves. Grimes County, in southeastern Texas, lies forty miles northwest of Houston and is bordered on the north by Madison County, on the east by Walker and Montgomery counties, on the south by Waller County, and on the west by Washington and Brazos counties. No murder or assault charges were filed because it was learned that McDonald had shot Emmett Scott point blank in the face as Scott entered Bradley's establishment. Our 125th Annual Meeting will be held online this year, and it will include informative sessions featuring the research of Texas history scholars, a presentation of awards and fellowships, a silent auction, and special events. Soon he began cultivating the staple on a three-league tract in what is now southwestern Grimes County, where perhaps as early as 1825 he constructed what may have been the first cotton gin in Texas. The Historical Marker Reads: Primus Kelly A faithful Negro slave. Their route to the Brazos River in southern Grimes County was known as the Coushatta Trace. Texas State Highway 6 passes north–south through the eastern side of the city as a four-lane bypass, leading northwest 22 miles (35 km) to College Station and south 21 miles (34 km) to Hempstead. Twenty-nine such incidents, including twelve homicides, were reported in the county in 1867 alone. [17], The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) operates the O.L. Navasota has several shops & artisans in its historic downtown district, typified by antique, gift shops, and boutiques housed in old classic stone and brick structures. Had Santa Anna won his war, the estimated 5,000 slaves living in Texas would've gone free. A The number of cattle raised annually reached a post-Civil War peak of 37,785 in 1890, then remained at about that level until 1940. Thereafter, the county population would rise by 13 percent in the 1880s and by 18 percent in the 1890s, to crest at 26,106 in 1900, the highest figure ever recorded there. Mexico had banned slavery in general as far back as 1829, and closed loopholes for Texas in 1830. Stimulated in large measure by the growth of extractive industries, a small manufacturing base developed in the county, with fabricated metal products and machinery leading the advance. The county's slave population continued to increase at an astonishing rate during the last decade of antebellum Texas, as a result not only of purchases by current residents but also of continuing heavy migration of slaveholders from the lower South. Furthermore, the war had scarcely ended before a violent incident set the tone for much of the postwar history of the county. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/grimes-county. His route, originally a crude Indian trace through southern Texas, soon became known as La Bahía road or trail and served as an important Spanish thoroughfare between the presidio at Goliad and that of San Francisco de los Tejas on the Old San Antonio Road near what is now Crockett. In 2013, the British documentary project known as Vague Direction visited Navasota and interviewed local residents Misslette The Singing Cowgirl and hog trapper Steve Stribling.[12]. As cotton growing declined, stock raising expanded in scope to become the most important agricultural activity in the county. The postwar struggle of Grimes County Blacks to establish vital social, economic, and political institutions mirrored the efforts of the county's White community to rebuild its own life in the aftermath of a shattering defeat. The violence unleashed against Populists during the election of 1900 proved difficult to contain. Many buildings were damaged, including the post office. The county returned majorities for Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956, and favored the Republican presidential candidate again in 1972, 1984, and 1988. Section 107 related to Copyright and “Fair Use” for Non-Profit educational institutions, which permits the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), to utilize copyrighted materials to further scholarship, education, and inform the public. In 1855 the county tax rolls enumerated 3,124 slaves, representing an almost 86 percent increase over the 1850 level. Of the 2,206 households, 37% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.5% were married couples living together, 20.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29% were not families. Most of the area, especially the eastern sections, consists of gently rolling to sloping terrain, while the bottomland along the rivers and streams is nearly level to gently sloping. Came to nearby Courtney, Grimes County in 1851 with his master, John W. S. West from North⦠[citation needed]. When the nearby historic town of Washington-on-the-Brazos resisted railway, it forfeited its geographic advantage and began to decline after many of its businesses and residents began to migrate to the new railhead 7 miles (11 km) to the northeast across the Brazos River at Navasota. Their women protected them on the way and the WMU gunmen refrained from killing the Scott women. School organizations and athletics available to students include Business Professionals of America, FFA, Student Council, National Honor Society, Theatre, Choir, Kickstart, Band, Bass Fishing, FCA, Skills USA, Library Club, Boyz II Men, Princess Code, UIL Academics, One Act Play, HOSA-Future Health Science Professionals, Spanish Club, Family Career and Community Leaders of America, Football, Volleyball, Cross Country, Drill Team, Cheer, Basketball, Golf, Tennis, Baseball, Softball, Powerlifting, Soccer, and Track.[21]. Though the county registered an 8 percent increase in population between 1910 and 1920 (a decade of agricultural prosperity), with the return of harder economic conditions in the 1920s and 1930s, the Grimes County population declined again, by an average of almost 3 percent a decade. The present court house was built in 1893. Charles Christopher Jackson, The county sponsored newspaper ads in the Dallas area beseeching former black residents to return to their "homes" in Grimes County. Corn remained one of Grimes County's most important crops from the beginning of the county's history until 1982, when more than 150,000 bushels were harvested. A new municipal building was completed in 2011 and continued downtown improvements are under construction, with completion scheduled for 2023. Petroleum was discovered in Grimes County in 1952, but until the late 1970s only token quantities were recovered. The Grimes County population stood at 18,603 in 1880, after registering a 29 percent increase in the previous decade. Well-known for his real estate and development projects, Camp moved from Mississippi in 1846 with his wife Eliza and acquired a lot of land in Grimes County. Local artist and sculptor Russell Cushman designed and built the bronze statue. On April 6, 1846, the first state legislature accepted the petition of local residents and established Grimes County, named in honor of Jesse Grimes, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence who was then representing the area in the state Senate. Pauline married Navasota Grice in 1875 and they moved to Texas in 1917. As the anarchy deepened, armed bands of Whites meted out vigilante justice; the Ku Klux Klan emerged in the county at Navasota in April 1868. In self-defense, local Blacks formed their own "militias." [14] A statue of Frank Hamer stands in front of city hall, honoring the time he served as city marshal. Navasota has many shops and artisans in its historic downtown district, including antique, gift, and boutique stores and art galleries housed in old classic stone and brick structures. In the summer of 1863 Gen. John B. Magruder, commander of the Department of Texas, established his headquarters at Piedmont Springs and stationed a division of Confederate soldiers there; by 1865 the once-opulent ballroom of the Piedmont Hotel had been converted into a military hospital. Most of this new industrial capacity developed within the town of Navasota, which continued to exercise a dominant influence on the economic, social, and political life of the county. The elevation ranges from 193 feet above sea level in the southeast to 415 feet in the northwest. The formal cessation of hostilities brought Grimes County residents new tribulations.
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