This Week in Texas Methodist History  January 24, 2021

 

Robert and Eliza Alexander Abandon Rutersville, Move Back to Caney Creek, January 1842

 

 

Robert Alexander, the first of the three appointed missionaries to reach  the Republic of Texas, lived in various parts of Texas during his long, productive life.  He had been one of the organizers of the town and university at Rutersville in Fayette County.  He owned an island in Galveston Bay within sight of the San Jacinto Battlefield.  He lived in Waco for a while, and died in Chappell Hill in the Isaac Applewhite house, which still exists. 

 

His greatest land holding, though, was his beloved Cottage Hill which embraced the camp site on which the 1834 and 1835 Methodist meetings were held.  The 1835 meeting resulted in a call for missionaries to Texas, to which he responded.  Robert and Eliza bough the property, consisting of about a quarter league (about 1100 acres) in January, 1842, after living briefly in Rutersville and helping get the university started. 

 

There were good reasons for the move.   The most important was that they were now living just a few miles from Eliza’s father, David Ayres who still had hopes that his city-building project of Centre Hill would prosper.   The other reason was that Alexander was a Presiding Elder who spent weeks away from home holding quarterly conferences.   Cottage Hill was more central to the three districts over which he would preside, and much of his salary was paid in cattle so he needed a ranch to hold them. 

 

The seller was Horatio Chriesman, trustee for the Willis Stanley League in Austin County.  Chriesman was a prominent surveyor whose name appears on the list of donors to Rutersville.  He is also important in Texas Presbyterian history since it was at his residence in Washington County that the Brazos Presbytery was organized just months before the organization of the Texas conference of the MEC. 

 

The house the Alexanders built near a spring  (Holly Springs) on the property began a favorite resting place for traveling Methodists, including bishops coming to Texas to hold annual conferences. 

 

They moved on, though.  In 1846 Centre Hill lost the county seat election to Bellville for the new seat of Austin County, replacing San Felipe.  David Ayres realized that Centre Hill would not prosper so he moved to Galveston.  Eliza thought her health problems would be alleviated by therapeutic springs in Central Texas so they moved to Bell County where David Ayres had extensive land holdings.    Robert took appointments in Waco and also as a representative for the American Bible Society.   They sold Cottage Hill to Robert W. and Harriet Scales, recent immigrants from Alabama.   Both Robert and Harriet had been previously married, and the bride was considerably younger than the groom.  Robert already had grown sons whom he put in charge of the ranch and also over the enslaved persons Harriet had brought into the marriage.  The sons abused their stepmother and  slaves terribly, and Harriet tried to reprimand her stepsons to know avail.  The breaking point, though, came when she caught Robert having sex with one of the enslaved women.  She filed for divorce---the Scales ranch failed, and Robert and Eliza bought it back, or really they just bought half of it back, 505 acres including the house.  That was in in 1862 so presumably they paid with  $6500 in Confederate money. (By the way, a descendant of the Scales family was Roland (Bill) Scales who was an outstanding preacher in the Texas Conference. )

 

Remember that David Ayres had moved to Galveston.  He had been the main supporter of the Methodist publishing efforts which were located in a building on the Strand.  He and his son, David Theodore Ayres, operated a thriving business---dealers in just about everything that a thriving seaport would need.   In 1868 Robert and Eliza bought Perkins Island (also called Adams Island) at the upper end of Galveston Bay.   Robert used a skiff to sail to Galveston where he continued to conduct church and family business.   One of the most important actions was serving on the Educational Commission which met in Galveston.  That commission led to the creation of Southwestern University in Georgetown—making Alexander the only participant in the creation of both Rutersville and Southwestern. 

 

He was semi-retired but was a main force in the church at Lynchburg, but alas in 1875 a hurricane wiped the island clean.   The cattle were killed, the house was blown away, and the family was presumed dead.  They had survived by clinging to the branches of a tree above the flood.

 

Alexander needed to un-retire.   He took an appoint to the Travis Circuit, less than ten miles from his beloved Cottage Hill which he had sold again when he moved to Galveston Bay.  The family also included his widowed daughter.   Alas, Eliza never recovered from injuries received during the hurricane.  With so many problems, they needed to live in a supportive community and settled in Chappell Hill. 

 

Soon after Robert Alexander’s death Methodists in Chappell Hill and Bellville purchased a small portion of the former Cottage Hill, and created a campground which flourished from the 1880s until about World War I. 

 

I have made friends with the current landowner and have walked these grounds many times, often leading tours.  The only signs of the campground are a row of sycamore trees and the cast iron pipe that served as a water well for the campground. 

 

My last visit to the site showed recent pipeline construction.  My heart sank.  If I had known about the construction, I would have monitored it, looking for artifacts revealed by the excavation. ---I was really upset since I serve on the Austin County Historical Commission which should have been notified that the construction was occurring.