History of the Stephenville Museum
by Betty Heath
Stephenville's earliest collection of historical memorabilia was displayed by the effort of the Twentieth Century Club. The display was located in a case in the lovely red brick building on the corner of Paddock and Green Streets, the building that then served as our library. For some time this group of women had discussed the possibility of acquiring the old rock cottage on East Washington Street with its surrounding grounds for the purpose of a museum. One member said that she knew the owners of the property and volunteered to speak with them on the matter. This club member reported to the membership that the owners were not interested. Later the club received the message that the owners said that they had sent the wrong person to talk to them. The decision was made to make an end run and the chore was passed to a younger club, The Stephenville Study Club.
Members of the Study Club went to the city council to ask assistance in obtaining the financing to buy the property. The council did not agree to provide funding, but they told the women of the club that they would investigate the possibility of trading property. And so it was that on December 28, 1965, Mayor Jack Arthur signed a deed transferring to Wayne Barham 3.875 acres west of Cleveland Avenue and 8.95 acres known as The Old City Dump. In return they received the cottage and its surrounding grounds most of the way to the Bosque River. On January 6, 1966, Rolland M. Klose of Bexar County sold for $10 the remaining lots that fronted on the river with the stipulation that they be used for a public park. And this is the way the City of Stephenville acquired the property that is now the Stephenville Museum, ten and a half acres that James David Berry, a lawyer and land agent, bought from John Boucher for the sum of $350 in 1869.
Berry, formerly a sergeant in the Confederate Quartermaster Corps in Arkansas, had studied and passed the bar after the war, and had moved to the Waco area. In 1969, he brought his family to Stephenville and began construction on the Gothic-style limestone cottage. Berry was successful in his legal and land business. Mrs. Berry was active in community events and the papers of the day describe her entertainments of her Baptist Sunday School class. She was known for her cooking skills and her expertise in gardening for she brought in fruit trees and grape vines that had not previously been cultivated in the area.
In People-Events and Erath County, Texas, the late Ennis Favors writes, "In 1889, when J. S. Favors crossed the Bosque River, from the East traveling West, in a covered wagon pulled by two horses and loaded with his family and his possessions, about where East Washington Street crosses now, he saw only the two story rock house of Col. Berry. (Confederate veterans were frequently referred to as Colonel regardless of their actual rank.) Hart Favors and Henry Favors were barefoot boys, and they remember seeing only the rock house from the river to the square, and seeing the courthouse under construction with big stones piled high all around the square. There were three or four saloons and three or four barber shops. Most of the buildings around the square were made of lumber with front porches and board walks from one to another instead of sidewalks. On the square they turned their wagon north and drove two blocks up Graham Street where they pulled over and camped under some trees."
By 1890, Col. Berry was in the insurance business and advertised fire insurance. The rates must have been awesome because Stephenville had no water system and no fire department. Fires were fought by volunteer bucket brigades, and on one night in 1890 the entire southern block of the square was consumed by fire within an hour's time. Ten merchants lost property valued at more than $50,000.
With the end of the decade, Mrs. Berry's health had failed, and she died on February 21, 1900. She is buried in the West End Cemetery beside her daughter Rena who preceded her in death. After Mrs. Berry's death, Berry sold all his household possessions and departed Stephenville. No further record of him has been found.
Many families lived in the little stone cottage, including the equally historical Hurley family. Kiker's gin occupied the space behind it where the log cabins are now located. The ginning operation may have contributed to the fading desirability of the residence. Anyway, by the late forties the house had been abandoned and when it was occupied at all, the occupants were derelict, homeless people who took refuge there at night and burned what wood they could find, including strips of woodwork, to keep warm.
So, on June 20, 1966, when representing the Stephenville Study Club, Naoma Hickie, Cathern Brooks, Marie Archer, Sue Williams, Zana Martin, and Audean Gilbert signed the articles of incorporation for the museum, they and the citizens of Stephenville had assumed a Herculean task in the restoration of the old cottage.
Fourteen structures now occupy the premises. They are the Berry House with its well house, the Carriage House, the blacksmith shop, the Buck cabin, the Carmack cabin, the Cowan cabin, the Walker-Jones cabin, the Byrum Corn Crib, the John Tarleton Ranch House, the Center Grove School with its outhouse, the Frey Guest Cottage, and the Chapel on the Bosque. The Herb Garden, built and kept for many years by the women of the Stephenville Garden Club, contains rosemary, tansy, southernwood, oregano, thyme, mint, chives, garlic, mullein, mustard, corn salad, Mexican mint marigold, epazote, dill, and annuals that would have been used for cooking or medication by the early settlers. The Stephenville Garden Club was one of the oldest federated clubs in the state. When it disbanded, volunteers took over the task of keeping the garden. A path of native stone in the form of a cross has been added through the length and width of the garden. This is traditional and its purpose is to keep the gardener from having to stand in the mud as she cultivates the herbs. An additional benefit is that the cross keeps the devil away.
Three log cabins show the earliest form of home construction by the Texas pioneers. The Carmack-Lewallen Cabin, once located on the Fort Griffin Road, housed a family of ten. The eight children slept in the loft on bedrolls. Lookout holes in the front and back walls are sized to allow a rifle barrel to be inserted so that a shot could be fired to ward off intruders. The Cowan-Rhodes Cabin was built by Isaac Cowan in 1859 on Richardson Creek in the Bluff Dale area. The Walker-Jones Cabin is a combination of the family home of Billy Jones, donated by that family and moved in from the Paluxy region. Logs donated by Dr. & Mrs. Robert Walker were used to construct an additional pen which is connected by a covered open space, making an example of a double-pen "dog-trot" style cabin. These cabins look small and uncomfortable when we show them today. But they were luxury to those who came here and lived in covered wagons and dugouts before they cleared a field, planted a crop and felled the trees to get a cabin built.
The Byrum Corn Crib represents the finest in log construction and houses an excellent barbed wire collection.
The ranch home of John Tarleton was donated by the Laird family and has been moved to the museum grounds and restored. The orphaned Tarleton fled the jurisdiction of a difficult aunt, leaving his native state of Vermont at the age of 12, in 1823. Working his way through North Carolina and Tennessee, he clerked more than 40 years in a mercantile store. Buying land certificates from the soldiers who came in to buy goods, he acquired land north of Stephenville for fourteen and a half cents an acre. When, after the civil war, he decided to come to Texas to see his land, he dressed as a tramp, secreting his fortune on his person and set out walking. On his arrival he found his land too remote and too susceptible to Indian raids to be occupied. So he walked to Waco and found employment clerking once more. He worked in Waco several years before returning to the ranch land he had purchased. When he died, he left the bulk of his fortune to establish an institution to educate young people who could not otherwise afford higher education. And so it is that Stephenville is blessed with Tarleton State University.
The Center Grove School is a two-room school house, donated by John and Metta Collier, and moved in from the Collier Ranch north of Stephenville. In 1870, families from Eutah County, in Alabama, made their way to this area. After they had cleared their land, planted their crops, and built their log homes, they constructed a center for learning, community gatherings, and worship. In time, and after many improvements this center became the beautiful school house we have today.
The south room is furnished to represent a class room of the period of multiple level teaching. The north room functions as a meeting room for community events.
In 1975, the old Presbyterian church, built in 1900, was facing the wrecking ball, as the First Baptist Church planned the renovation and enlargement of their facility. So, under the guidance of the museum board of directors, with Dr. Robert Walker, Naoma Hickie, W. N. "Boone" Brown, A.H. "Doc" Boyd, and H. O. Ferrell at the helm, the Stephenville community adopted as a Bicentennial Project, the movement of the old church to the museum grounds. This beautiful chapel, built in the Carpenter Gothic style, is used for community gatherings. Being publicly owned, it no longer serves as a religious structure, but it can be rented by a religious group for a special event. Funerals can be held there, but the most popular usage is weddings. Such usage provides needed income for the museum. The Stephenville Museum Sunday Series is held there twice monthly at 2:30 p.m. Popular music, country music, poetry readings, reader's theatre and chamber music performances are enjoy by the community with no fee charged to those who attend.
Emphasis is being placed on the archives as a repository for photographs and family history. Both old and new area families are encouraged to place their information in our archives for the benefit of those who will be researching in the future.
The Stephenville Museum is open Monday through Friday from 1:00 p. m. to 5:00 p.m. Weekend touring hours are 2 p. m. to 5 p. m. on Saturday. Email address is berry@our-town.com The Stephenville Museum is located at 525 East Washington Street, tel. 254-965-5880.