On December 16 we joined 8 of our BWR neighbors in giving Bryan Tarbox of TSUs Biology Dept. and his group of birders access to our property for the San Marcos Christmas Bird Count. Bryan had scouted the area the week before with our permission so he knew our area well. After counting another area near the university in the morning, his group of four arrived here around 1pm and worked until dark.
According to Bryan, the Sage Thrasher (below) was the highlight of the day.
After tabulating the results, Bryan sent all of us the total count for BWR and the various birds found on each property. Also, we were invited to join the birders if we were so inclined. There is no doubt that we will sign up again in 2019. And in the meantime peruse the sparrow bird book pages as seven different sparrows were identified on our property. We missed seeing the 418 robins on our property on the day of the count, but on the morning of December 28 we were delighted by a huge flock of robins in the front yard flitting around in the trees and pecking on the ground.
If any of you would like a pdf copy of the total results of the BWR bird count and where the birds were found, let us know and we’ll send it off to you.
We found this whole endeavor so interesting that we looked into the history of the Christmas Count. It evolved from the Christmas “Side Hunt” a tradition popular prior to 1900 involving guns rather than binoculars. The groups involved chose sides and each side killed as many feathered and furred creatures as possible within a certain time limit. The side with the most casualties was proclaimed the winner.
The idea of conservation was just beginning and in 1900 ornithologist Frank M. Chapman, worried about the declining bird population, proposed a “Christmas Bird Census” that would involve counting birds rather than killing them. The first count included 27 dedicated birders who participated in 25 bird counts. Most took place in N.E. North America, but they did range west to Pacific Grove, California. And the counts have been going on ever since, providing important information on the birds’ migratory patterns, their food sources and their habitats. Just as we saw right here a few years back when we had an invasion of mice. We also had an increase in our owl population and noticed a snake coiled near the bird feeder waiting for the birds to send down some seed to attract the mice it had planned for breakfast. Then the mice left, the owls followed and the snake had to work harder for breakfast.
The Audubon Society at the following site has some very interesting 4 minute videos of dedicated birders working on their bird count lists in Pautuxet, Maryland, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Mad Island, Texas and Irruptive Species in Maine.
www.audubon.org/conservation/history-christmas-bird-count
The Nature of the Place
This month we’re going to interpret the word nature as ‘the nature of something’ and apply it to the areas of Hugo and Purgatory Roads. And that includes the history that influenced how the land was settled and how it changed over the years.
In chatting with a local rancher who has lived on Hugo Rd. for a very long time, we learned that an old one room school still exists on Purgatory Rd. although it hasn’t served as a school for many years.
That conversation intensified our interest in that general area, and we began to probe for more details. What we found was that in the late 1800s, there were sufficient residents of the area to have formed a small settlement. This small settlement was called Purgatory Springs supposedly because a young lawyer named Massey got lost here and wandered around for hours before making it home. When asked by his family where he had been, he told them he was in purgatory. It could be that Massey was exploring the area as there were only two roads leading westward from San Marcos, one called the Wimberley Road and the other was Purgatory Road. The Purgatory Road followed the same road bed as present day Hugo Road. This is all shown on a 1881 map. Keep in mind that there were no cars at that time so one can envision wagons plying their way back and forth to Purgatory right past BWR’s gate.
Purgatory Creek, the creek we know here in BWR starts way up in the hills just north of RR 32, near the intersection of Purgatory Road and RR 32. The creek, when it rains, flows down south from that point on the eastern side of Purgatory Road, crossing the road very near the intersection of Hugo Road with Purgatory Road, then back under Purgatory Road to the stock tank and on toward BWR.
Historical accounts have documented that this settlement consisted of a store, a post office, a school, a cemetery and a church. The school, the home of Joseph and Elizabeth Williamson, and the cemetery are the only physical remains of the old settlement. When the post office was established in 1896, it was thought that Purgatory Springs was not a fitting name for a post office and so the name Hugo was chosen instead. We are still working on the origin of the name Hugo; but according to one source, it may have originated from an old name in the Williamson family.[1]
Recently in talking to the owner of the old one-room school we confirmed its existence. It is painted red and sits in the woods on the right side of Purgatory Rd.[2]
As reported in Clear Springs and Limestone Ledges A History of San Marcos and Hays County, the first school was a log building followed by the red building in the same location. From various historical sources it appears that the school was established on January 9, 1877 with 17 pupils. John Henry Saunders, the first teacher, taught grades one through seven. Oscar Owen donated a one acre tract of land for the new school, three trustees were chosen and families in the community made contributions for the materials that went into the frame structure.
From the San Marcos Record, October 15, 1970, we learned that a Hugo School Reunion was held on Saturday night at Carson’s Restaurant in San Marcos. About 40 people were present, 25 prior pupils plus spouses and friends. And during the “gab session” that followed the dinner, they reminisced about the difficulty of getting to school back in their day.
The old school on Purgatory Road.
Some came on horseback, some walked and Jessie Nowotney Metz, currently of Austin, “made her journey to school and back on a donkey.” They carried their lunches in lunch buckets and many times traded the contents. It is interesting to note that kids traded lunch then just as we did in the 1940s. They carried drinking water in buckets from a small store next door and “…trips to Hall’s Store for fresh buckets were frequent.” Their other memories included baseball games, Christmas programs and holidays. Other reunions followed, with the last being recorded in the San Marcos Daily Record of October 7, 1978.
The school was closed and the students were bused to San Marcos sometime between the years 1920 and 1940. [3] The school house was sold by the San Marcos School Board in the 1950s. The new owner says that back then there was still evidence of the foundation of Hall’s store that had contained the old Hugo Post Office which existed from 1896 to 1909 with Elizabeth Fox as the first Hugo Post Mistress. However, new owners of that property had the area bulldozed and nothing remains anymore.
One of the earliest homesteads in Purgatory Springs was built by Joseph Williamson and his wife Elizabeth. Born in Tennessee, Joseph and his wife came to San Marcos, TX in 1851 and built a house where the Methodist Church is today. After a bit of time they moved again, this time to the Hill Country to Purgatory Springs. They homesteaded 640 acres, enough land for each of their children and themselves to have farms. Their old board house has been replaced with stone but still stands on the same site on RR 32 across the road from its junction with Purgatory Road. Joseph specialized in raising pigs and there are still many outbuildings and fences to be seen as well as three old oak trees. One of which must have been the one where he hung his basket of shucked corn for the pigs and another under which his granddaughter was married.
The last remaining physical feature of old Hugo is the Hugo Cemetery. It lies south on Purgatory Rd. from RR 32 on a small hill that rises on the right side of the road. There is a place for a car to park off the road and then one can walk up to the open gate. This one acre plot was set aside as a cemetery by the Joseph Williamsons.
For at least 163 years the Joseph Williamson Sr. family and their relatives have been buried here. When the town was renamed Hugo, the cemetery followed suit. The trees you see in the picture are trimmed cedars that provide shade, but still maintain a light and airy look to the promontory.
According to a cemetery listing, members of the family continue to care for the site and it looks very nice with various beds of what look like cemetery iris. We will definitely make a point in April to check the blooms and see if they are white. An interesting fact about the fence is that the hand twisted wire used for the fence surrounding the cemetery was made by family members on the grounds in 1900. The wire fence was installed at the cemetery after WWII by Elbert and Doyle Williamson and their cousin Lester Whipple along with Bonnie Adare Williamson who paid for the fence.
There’s a story here somewhere. It seems from this gentleman’s lovely grave stone that he was “loved hard as well” and was an appreciated member or friend of the family. Read the words on the grave marker.
Before leaving Hugo, TX. we’ll go back in time to when it was Purgatory Springs and it welcomed an enterprising young man named John Henry Saunders to the town. John Henry was born, the 8th child of 11, in Kasey, Virginia in 1850. He enlisted in the Second Virginia Cavalry when he was 13 and served to the end of the war. Back at home, he and his brothers found that brother James who had already received his inheritance at his marriage was given the home plantation and its management as well by his widowed mother. This made John Saunders and his other brothers angry and they all left home.
John Henry was then 16 years old and he went to Tennessee to live with his mother’s sister and attended school. After staying there 3 years and becoming a teacher, he left Tennessee for Indian Territory where he taught for 2 years. He was now 21 and Texas beckoned.
John Henry found what he was looking for in San Marcos, TX. He acquired a job with Colonel S.D. Jackman who had returned to farming and become a political figure in Hays County after the war. Jackman recommended Saunders for the newly created teacher’s position at Purgatory Springs School. John Henry was hired and he moved to Purgatory Springs and boarded at the home of Captain Adams.
Then the 22 year old teacher and his star pupil, Miss Calladonia(“Callie”) Modeline Williamson, granddaughter of Joseph and Elizabeth Williamson, fell in love. They were married at sundown under a big live oak tree in the front yard of her grandmother’s home in Purgatory Springs. The couple bought and moved to Captain Adams home. John Henry taught school at both Purgatory Springs and Wimberley riding his horse to school each day.
The next 16 years were busy ones for the Saunders family. Planning to build a house in San Marcos, John Henry quarried stone. He also bought horses and took them to market via the railroad to Indiana, Missouri and Virginia.
Next month we will follow John Henry, Callie and their growing family as they move from Purgatory Springs to Wimberley on February 26, 1888.
R & D Tusch
[1] One of the earliest members of the Williamson family was Hugo Williamson of Yorkshire in 1379.
[2] From Hugo Rd. where it intersects with Purgatory, turn right and travel about an eighth of a mile and you will see it.
[3] The exact date remains debatable at this time.
