Walkerton: Roots of the county

Walkerton: Roots of the county

Written by Karen R. Thompson Monday, 07 May 2007

To celebrate the Texas Centennial in 1936, 493 gray granite markers were placed at historically significant sites in Texas. One of those Centennial Markers is at the entrance to Block House Creek subdivision.

It reads: Site of a Block House. Built by Texas Rangers under Captain John J. Tumlinson in 1836. Destroyed by Indians in 1837. This was the first white man’s post in Williamson County.

In the 1820s and 1830s settlers wanted to go up the Colorado River, but Indians were a problem. Stephen F. Austin hired three ranging-corps of men to protect the area. One ranger group was commanded by Capt. John J. Tumlinson. His men built a small fort using block house wood hauled from Bastrop. A big oak tree served as a lookout post and the spring-fed creek provided water. But when General Sam Houston sent word for the men to come help fight Santa Anna, the fort was abandoned and later destroyed by fire.

Alexander Stuart Walker (1826-1896) and his wife, Jane Wilbarger, moved to Georgetown in 1853, where he served as district clerk and district judge. Walker was appointed associate justice of the Texas Supreme Court from March 1888 to January 1889. He acquired more than 1,000 acres of land, which included the Tumlinson Fort site.

When the Austin & Northwestern Railroad was built from Austin to Marble Falls in 1882, a small “flag station” was added at the ranch and named Walkerton. This made shipping cattle to market easier.

Alexander Stuart Walker, Jr. (1865-1933) was a prominent lawyer like his father and served two terms as Travis County Attorney. He also divided his time between the ranch and Austin.

President Woodrow Wilson appointed him Texas collector of internal revenue in 1913. Arriving by train to the Walkerton Station, President Wilson enjoyed hunting at the ranch.

However, Alexander Stuart Walker, III, born in 1892, was truly a man of the ranch. He knew and loved every inch of the place, including the 56 Indian mounds (middens) on the land.

Another famous visitor to the ranch was William Jennings Bryan who traveled to the area with his wife in 1908 while touring the country during his third campaign for President of the United States. He was to speak at Southwestern University in Georgetown.

The first person to own an automobile in Georgetown was W. H. Crowley who bought a two-cylinder 1906 Buick. It was not long before E. F. Booty had a 48 horsepower 1908 Buick. After lunch and quail hunting at the Walker ranch, these two cars were sent to pick up the Bryans and deliver them to Georgetown.

In 1962 when I first visited his widow Mary Walker at the Walker Ranch on Block House Creek, I fell in love with her and the ranch; it was a dream location for a historian. Her home was built at the site of Tumlinson Fort, and you could still see where the steps had been cut out of the oak tree more than 130 years earlier.

 

Learn more about the Walker family in Part two of this story in the June issue.

Thompson is manager of archives for Williamson County.