Category: Brown County Gleanings

For well over 50 weeks, I have been gathering and sharing bits of history about Brown County, and I hope you have found them to be informative and entertaining. We have more history in every square acre of land here in Brown county, than most people have in their entire counties.

Simon Pierce Burns rose to the rank of Colonel in the Confederate Army, was petitioned to become a Brigadier General, became the Sheriff of Collin County, was a successful lawyer in Brown County, and later was elected to the state Legislature in 1894. He was a candidate for the Senate just before his untimely death.

Although he is 79 years old, Hardy Jones of San Angelo, Texas, is still an active cowboy. Some men of that age become cooks or do other light work (if any) when on cattle works, but not so with Mr. Jones.

The General Store, sometimes called a dry goods store, emporium or mercantile – had a little bit of everything. Foodstuffs like cheese, crackers, hardtack, wheat flour, rice, and coffee were available, as were household goods like pots and pans, lamps, furniture, tools, and even stoves.

An excerpt from the book “The Promised Land – A History of Brown County, Texas” gives a glimpse of the deeds of Brown County Pioneer Brooks W. Lee

This is one of a series of Brown County Legends. Many of the biographies were written in their lifetimes, by writers that knew them personally. This bio. Was written in 1895

Between 1880 and 1910, wagon yards were in every town in the western United States. By the 1920s, the invention of motorized transportation had made the wagon yard a relic of the past, but it had a secure place in the history of pioneer days in Texas.

Along with plentiful game, natural resources and abundant farm and ranching lands in early Brown county, there was always the concern of protection of the early pioneering families. Because of this, with formation of the county in 1856, a Sheriff was one of the first offices filled.

Cattle movements of the early days were by trails, involving hard and tedious and often dangerous work for the frontier cattlemen of this area. Likewise, the hauling of freight in the early days was a difficult task, because there were no roads or bridges, and hardships were on every hand.

Many patrons have either donated or shared old family photographs with the Pecan Valley Genealogical Society and the Brownwood Public Library’s Genealogy & Local History Branch. The library offers a unique and valuable service to the community. That service is scanning or digital archiving of old photographs and documents. The only fee for this service, is the permission to add these digital images to our collection to share with family historians and researchers.