POTTSVILLE
POTTSVILLE
was
named for Captain John Stephen Potts. The town site was formed from
a part of his farm, and on a portion of the farm belonging to Edmund
T. Goggin, grandfather of L. D. Bratton. Mr. Goggin
stipulated that intoxicating liquor could never be sold within the bounds
of Pottsville which is twelve miles west of Hamilton. Capt.
Potts also donated land for the Pottsville Public Cemetery. Thomas
Jefferson Burks became the first postmaster at Pottsville on
2 January, 1879.
EARLY SETTLERS
Henry Hoover
and Tom Patterson were the first settlers in the Pottsville
area before the Civil War. The Hoover Knobs were named for Henry
Hoover. The early 1870's was the time the following pioneers moved to Pottsville:
Edmond T. Goggin, Capt. John Stephen Potts, Thomas
Jefferson Burks, Frank Burks,
Mr. Conner, James Hamilton Collett, L. S. Bratton, and William
McPherson.
In the 1880's William McPherson
and two brothers went to San Antonio to buy 4,000 sheep which they
had to herd back to Pottsville because there was no railroad. The Indian
Gap and Pottsville Telephone Union was organized in the
early 1900's and served the area until about 1963. I have the share
purchased for $25.00 by my great-grandfather, William Henry Jarius
Fergusson, on 22 February., 1909. The certificate was signed by L.
S. Bratton and S. H. McPherson. The Fortunatas William Bryan
family arrived in Hamilton County in 1889, settled at
Pottsville, and opened a store
selling groceries, dry goods, and hardware.
Thomas Solomon Vaughn brought
his family to Hamilton County following the Civil War. Vaughn
pre-empted land on the Leon River near Jonesboro, later
exchanging it for a gin and a 240 acre farm at Pottsville on the Hoover
Branch of the Cowhouse. On 11 November, 1875, he bought the R.
J. Rosser place.
John Potts
bought 240 acres of the Levi Sellick Survey land in West Hamilton County,
for $500 in gold in 1869. Later Mr. Potts purchased 277 acres of land on
the Cowhouse Creek in Hamilton County from Julius
Benjamin Kennedy ( of Bastrop County), assignee of Laura
Burleson on 9 July, 1879. (Hamilton County Deed Book 1, pg. 151.)
Laura Burleson had received a land grant of one million, eight
thousand and nine hundred square varas of land in Hamilton County twelve
miles from the town of Hamilton from the Commissioner of the
General Land Office on May 21st, 1873. Laura Burleson transferred
the land to B. F. Jones on 24 June, 1874, who in turn transferred
the land to Julius Kennedy on 29 June, 1874. William Henry
Jarius Fergusson purchased this tract of land from John Potts
on 2 November, 1895, for $550. (Hamilton County Trust Deeds, Book K,
p. 526)
Joseph Samuel Miller "Joe"
Poston came to Pottsville in 1892 and
purchased a 3,000 acre ranch where he raised sheep, cattle, horses, and
mules. In 1895 Joe married Maggie Belle Jones. At one time
Mr. Poston owned the Hamilton County Oil Mill and several gins. In 1908 he
purchased a ranch one mile west of Hamilton and built a colonial two-story
home in 1910.
"Miss Anna Rea Writes History
of Pottsville"
Published in a March, 1977 issue of The
Hamilton Herald-News
By Anna Louise
Rea
(Born 17 February, 1886, to Ole K.
Rea and Anna Carolyn Zschiesche Rea, Miss Rae was 93 when she
died 20 February, 1979.)
"Pottsville was
named in honor of Captain John Potts, one of the first settlers in
about 1870. Tom Burks was the first postmaster. James Hamilton
Collett was Justice of the Peace, and Mr. Harralson (D. I. Haralson)
was the first minister of the Gospel.
The second minister was William
Strong Harrison. He was the grandfather of Dr. W. W. Fowler of Dallas.
There were three Fowler girls: Marie, Anne, and Ola.
Early settlers around
Pottsville were Tom, Frank, and Billie Burks, James Hamilton
Collett, Oleander Hamilton, Jr., John and Charley Collett, Tom
Patterson, Mr. Vaughn, Mr. McPherson, Henry Fox Hoover, Harris Fowler,
Jessie Goggan, Kate Walton, Gabe and Edgar Smith, and Alice
Smith who married Hal Williams of
Hamilton.
The Indians roamed
the countryside, and there were many raids. The Hoover Knobs were
named after Henry Fox Hoover who with his wife and child, fought
off one Indian attack. He and some of his family were later buried
inside a little rock fence just south of the farm-to-market road from Pottsville
to Indian Gap. In 1870, the burying place was on the Hoover
Ranch.
Miss Alice Goggin
was the first school teacher of Pottsville about the year 1876. The
school building was a log cabin on my family’s ranch west of
Pottsville.
Her pupils were Ras
Rogers, (son of Mrs. Tom Patterson by her first marriage), Lavie
Patterson, Sarah Collett, Alex Bratton, Ed Bratton, Lona Bratton
Cunningham (brothers and sister of Dee and Norman Bratton),
Inez May, Louis Owen, and Louise Vaughn, Julia Vaughn Martin,
Bessie Abernathy, Conrad Steward, Tom, Charley, and Ike(Hugh Isaac)
Moore, Jake and Lula Simmons, and Julia
Martin.
Alice Goggin married
Tom Burks. She was the mother of Mrs. Sam McPherson, now of Hamilton."
On Saturday evening before Easter Sunday
in 1944, a tornado swept through Hamilton County cutting a path two
miles wide and fifteen miles long causing damage in Pottsville, Blue
Ridge, and Aleman. Eight-month old Glenda Jean Glover
was torn from her mother’s arms and later found dead a short distance
from their home. Five people in Pottsville were injured--Mrs. A.
D. Glover, Jr., mother of Glenda Jean; Mr. and Mrs. J. S.
Moore, Mrs. Otto Schultz, Mr. and Mrs. A. D. Glover, Sr., and Juan
June Glover. Fourteen houses, thirty-four barns, and fifty-seven
others buildings were destroyed in Hamilton County and fifty
houses, thirty-two barns, and forty other buildings were damaged.
"The following list of the homes
totally destroyed was furnished by the Red Cross Relief Committee: J.
E. Oustad, John. Stegemoller, Carl Cox, Mrs. William Griffie, Otto
Schultz, J. S. Moore, Lawrence Rice, George Rudolph, Mrs. Ida
Schultz, D. T. White, and N. E. Wilkins in the Pottsville
area." The church building of the Pottsville Church of Christ
was destroyed.
My great-grandfather, William Henry
Jarius Fergusson, and his nephew’s family who lived with him--Herbert
and Neva Adcock and their children, as well as some neighbors took
refuge in the Fergusson storm cellar. After the storm they found
that their house had been moved from its foundation. The kerosene lamp was
still setting undamaged on the kitchen table, but my great-grandfather’s
reading glasses which had been beside the lamp were never found. Until the
storm my great-grandfather had daily walked to the store in Pottsville
to get his mail and newspaper to read. After the storm macula degeneration
quickly robbed him of almost all vision.
"POTTSVILLE,
TX." The Handbook of Texas Online
POTTSVILLE,
TX, - TEXAS ESCAPES
POTTSVILE,
TX