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Dr.
R. H. Harrison Drugs
Photo courtesy Nesbitt Memorial Library (Enhanced by Steve Morgan)
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Drug Stores |
History in
a Pecan ShellAlleyton
is hardly a household name, yet its importance to the Confederacy is well known
by Texas Civil War buffs. Since
it was the end of the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railroad line,
it was also the point for distributing supplies that came in from England via
Matamoros, Mexico on the "Cotton Road". Even cotton
farmers from as far away as Warrenton
(Fayette County) would make the
trip to Brownsville. |
. Alleyton
depot during 1913 flood
Photo courtesy Nesbitt Memorial Library
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Depots |
1936
Centennial Marker - intersection of Center & Alleyton Roads
Photo courtesy
Barclay
Gibson, February 2009 |
1936 Centennial
Marker TextAlleytonOldest
permanent settlement and once largest town in Colorado County. Established by
the pioneer Alley family (Willliam, John, Rawson, Thomas and Abraham), all members
of Austin's original 300 settlers. Terminus of the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado
Railroad, 1860-1867. |
 |
Historical
Marker TextAlleyton,
C.S.A.Born as War
clouds gathered. Alleyton was a key point on the supply line of the Confederate
States of American during the Civil War. It was both beginning and end of the
cotton road leading to the Confederacy's back door on the Rio Grande River.
By
1860 the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railroad extended from Harrisburg,
near Houston. To Alleyton. As a
railhead Alleyton became the site of an important cotton
station and Quartermaster Depot during the War.
Cotton
came here from north and
east Texas. From Louisiana, and from Arkansas
on the Rails of the B.B.B. & C. and via wagon roads. From Alleyton the South's
most precious trading commodity was carried to a point on the Colorado River across
from Columbus. A point on the Colorado
River across from Columbus. It
was then ferried across for the start of a long, tortuous journey to the Rio Grande.
The bales of cotton were hauled on big-bedded
wagons and high-wheeled Mexican carts, pulled by mules, horses or oxen.
The
Cotton Road led to Goliad,
San Patricio, the
King Ranch and finally to Brownsville.
Shreds of white fluff on bush and cactus marked the trail of the wagon trains.
From Brownsville the cotton
was taken across the river to Matamoros, Mexico and subsequently placed on board
ships bound for Europe. As the only major gap in the Federal naval blockade of
the Confederacy, neutral Matamoros was the place of exchange for outgoing cotton
and imported munitions, clothing and medicine.
When Federal forces took
Vicksburg in 1863 the Mississippi River was sealed off and the Confederacy divided.
The Texas-Mexico trade routes became the South's major military supply lines in
the trans-Mississippi west.
Alleyton was a main destination of the wagon
trains returning from the Rio Grande. Rifles, swords, shirts, pants, alum, arrowroot
and other items needed by soldier and civilian in the harried Confederacy were
unloaded here for new destinations. |
Tombstone
denoting Dallas Stoudenmire's participation in the Civil War
TE Photo |
Alleyton is also the
the burial place of Dallas Stoudenmire, a local Confederate veteran turned
gunman who became both an El Paso City Marshall and a U.S. Deputy Marshall in
El Paso.
Eager
to get into his new job in El
Paso, he killed 3 men within 3 days of taking the job. It sounds worse than
it was since they were all killed in the same fight. Dallas bullied and cursed
the city council, but openly apologized when sober.
The apologetic side
of his nature shows his good Colorado County upbringing. His homicidal streak
he acquired elsewhere. Dallas returned to Columbus long enough to get married
in February, 1882 but was shot dead within the year back in El
Paso. This occurred some 13 years before John Wesley Hardin (from nearby
Gonzales) was also shot dead in El
Paso. |
The
former Alleyton Post Office
TE
Photo |
Citizens of Alleyton
have progressed from the old wooden Post Office to the nice and neat modern metal
drive-up boxes. It does make visiting with neighbors a little difficult, but now
they can honk at one another.
Today, Alleyton sits undisturbed just
East of Columbus and makes an interesting
drive-by visit on the way to Eagle
Lake and points south.
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