Rogers Homestead, 1861-1865
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AN IMPORTANT PIECE OF TEXAS HISTORY HIDDEN FROM THE BEATEN PATH OF NORTH AUSTIN
Come experience a piece of Stephen F. Austin history! Here you will find a very good historical remnant of a closed dog-trot house and an important piece of Texas history.
On a cold fall morning in 1984, I spotted this old limestone structure from the windows of the northbound Amtrak train on tracks that run through UT and IBM property. Hidden beyond the whir of trees and branches as we sped past, my view gave way to a pasture opening and a quick sighting of this house. Smoke rose from chimneys and several train hobos waved from the house.
Twelve years later, I took a job at the nearby J.J. Pickle Research Campus. I'd forgotten all about this place, yet everyday I passed it by car. Only in winter months could I see the chimneys above the tree line when leaves had fallen from the trees.
Before major developers purchased the property on the NE corner of MoPac Expressway and Braker Lane, I hiked down to the house. The overgrown grounds included beautiful old live oaks that draped down to the ground. Horse hooves were still in the soft sand inside the cedar log stable. Two bottle-shaped cisterns provided water to the stable and the house. The walls were thick and the flagstones under the broken wooden slats of the floors were massive. The glass windows and front door were gone but the wooden frames were all intact.
I did some research at the Austin History Center and much to my surprise I discovered that this old homestead is located at the headwaters of Shoal Creek. I then realized that's why all the water pools just south of here--the headwaters still exist in the retention ponds at the NE corner of 183 & MoPac! This property is the Rogers Homestead, a land grant given to James Burleson Rogers, member of Stephen F. Austin’s ‘Little Colony.’ The limestone house was built for James’ son, Edward Houston Rogers, upon his marriage to Sallie Moss. and belonged to the Rogers family.
Below, you can read more of the best nuggets of historical documents about this land grant given by Stephen F. Austin. Although applied for, there is no historical marker, and it looks like the application will not be accepted. My guess is that while the developers tried hard to renovate according to historical platting and archaeological finds, there must be inaccuracies in the finished renovation and it was not accepted. It would be nice if the developers posted an unofficial historical plaque.
Fellow geocachers, I hope you will appreciate the significance of this hallowed ground. It is my first cache to hide. You will find easy parking day and night, with lamp posts all around to provide light for evening cachers. Watch for wasp nests during warm months. There are muggles on occasion, but most will just look down on you.
Congrats to First to Find (FTF), Indigo Parrish!
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NOMINATION FORM to the Register of Historic Places Inventory of the U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service (date stamped October 29, 1974)
"The buildings were most probably constructed by Edward H. Rogers at the time of his marriage to Sallie A. Moss in January of 1861 making the structure one of the very few constructed in the Austin area between 1861 and 1865. Rogers and his wife first occupied the house, followed by their son Edward H. Rogers who lived there until his death in 1937. The house appears to have been vacant since that time.
The major significance of the complex lies in its representation of a mid-nineteenth century farm complex. Agriculturally, it is a good example of the many small farmsteads once common in the rural areas around Austin. The significance of the complex in relation to communications is associated with its location on a principal road from Austin to Duval and Bagdad. This road served as a main artery to Burnet and at a later date the Austin and North West and the Illinois and Great Northern Railroad followed the road from Llano to Austin carrying granite for the present state capitol. The farm apparently served as a watering stop for wagons using the road.
The site consists of a three room stone house having a collapsed front porch, two log cribs and open board barn, two cisterns, the remains of a windmill, a recent shed and ruins of a small outbuilding and an addition to the house. It is fenced with a steel stake and barbed wire fence. Horses are presently kept on the property.
The joists are sawn juniper logs supported by plank and limestone sleepers. The floor consists of sawn planks possibly from the Jones and Rogers Mill. Doors are vertical planks held together with a pair of screwed-on wooden muntins. The roof is pine plank on a simple pitched frame on which the ridged metal is nailed.
The house plan consists of three rooms in a line with the middle room having exits to the front and back (closed “dog trot”). Side rooms open to the middle one.
The barn consists of two log crib enclosures and four plank enclosures separated by an open passage. The cisterns are bottle shaped and dry. The windmill frame has collapsed.
The father of Edward H. Rogers was James Burleson Rogers, one of the original settlers of Austin’s Little Colony. Rogers received his grant in 1831 at the mouth of Shoal Creek [where it empties into the Colorado River] and moved it shortly thereafter to its location north of the headwaters of Shoal Creek. Rogers served as an election judge for the Mina [Bastrop] district. Rogers’ brother Joseph was a member of the militia and was killed by Indians in 1837 at Rogers Hill beginning a cemetery at that spot.
Edward H. Rogers married Sallie A. Moss and received a tract from his father from Rogers’ grant, which he inherited officially in 1867 at Rogers death. E. H. and Sallie Rogers had a son Edward H., Jr. who died in 1937.
The house site is located on an abandoned segment of the Bagdad Road opened in the 1840s or 1850s between Austin and Bagdad in Williamson County. This road was a principal road northwest for a considerable time, probably until the 1930s.
The house is in reasonably good condition and is a stone variation of the Texas dog trot cabin, thereby being unique architecturally. The barn is in unusually good condition as are the cisterns. The house is a variation of the two room and hall frontier log cabin common in early Texas having two chimneys. Its style is unlike the early Anglo cabins in its construction and enclosed dog trot and considerably different in its plan from the German settlements. (See Alexander, D.B., 1966, Texas Homes of the Nineteenth Century.)"
AUSTIN's LITTLE COLONY Permit Application:
"The citizen Stephen F. Austin in charge of the introduction of foreign immigrants into the colonies over which the supreme government of the State of Coahuila and Texas has given him authority, through the contracts drawn up between the said government and the said Austin, to wit:
I CERTIFY, that James Rogers is one of the colonists included in my contracts before mentioned, who has the period of one year from this date in order to change his residence to this colony; in order that he may not find difficulties on the part of the Mexican authorities during his journey I gave him this document as proof of his right to emigrate with his family and goods, to this part of the territory of the Mexican Republic.
Village of Austin, December 1, 1830.
Estevan F. Austin"
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