Robert Terrell

Robert Terrell:

Hello I'm Captain Terrell you may have read a lot about me and my wife Emily in the newspapers lately heck this town's even named after me but very few people have actually heard stories about me straight from the horse's mouth…

Emily:

Oh mercy!  I guess I know what I need to get you for your supper then…Bob.  A good ole batch of oats should do you fine.

Robert:

Now Emily….

Emily: 

Now Robert….

Robert:

Folks let me introduce you to my wife Emily.  Now dear these folks came to hear a good story….

You see I never dreamed as boy growing up in Tennessee that there’d one day be a town in Texas named after me. And especially when Mama and I got to New Orleans and I started  studying surveying in 1838. After fighting a dual that almost killed me and my insultor I thought I’d fought my last fight. Little did I know what all I was getting into when my older brother Georgie came to New Orleans on his way to Texas and drug me along with him.  He didn’t just drag me to Texas but connected me with Dr. King and I sent out a looking for the the third branch of the the Trinity River, cuz it can’t be no trinity unless there’s a three in one. 

I surveyed over half a million acres looking for that branch of the river only to end up helpin Dr. King build a Fort near his Creek.

We built four cabins and surrounded them with skinny 10 foot pickets stabbed about 2 feet in the ground. It gave us less than an acre to have to a defend from the Indians.  Of course a fort ain’t no good if the gate ain’t shut.

One day only four of us were at the fort when the dogs a started barking. I looked up and about 30 Indians were riding straight for the open gate.  Right before they could ride in the gate got shut stopping them right in their tracks. After a quick pow wow they galloped back for an attack but I shot that lead horse which brought the raid to a quick stop.  They doubled up on a pony and rode away as fast as the horse could carry them.

Emily:

You heard it folks…. Straight from the horse’s mouth…..

Robert:

In 42, Georgie commission me to help him and his good friend Sam Houston…calling on me to help him build the Republic of Texas.  I was sent as a secret agent to Sante Fe which ended up getting me arrested and imprisoned as a spy by the Mexicans.  I was released in 43 and made back down to capital of the Republic. I returned to Washington wearning nothing but a red bandana on my head, a buckskin clout on my hips, a pair of mocassins on my feet,  and riding a Mexican mule.

Emily:

(snorts) Now you’ve heard it folks straight from the ‘mules’ mouth!

Robert:

Now folks all these adventures happen before I met my dear sweet Emily here.

After a few rough years I was ready for some familiar territory and returned to the Prairie as deputy surveyor of the Nacogdoches land district. I came with grants of land that needed to be located and surveyed all throughout that district. I started out southwest of Kingsford and was accompanied by two persons. They were my chain carriers. You see you use a chain to measure the distance along the line laid out bye the carriers sometimes people already living in the area would come along and help us lay out the chains. I would identify locations with the names of the chain carriers that frequently helped us along the way. Sometimes I had a survey as many as 4600 acres. I came to the good fortune of helping Mr. John C Hale with his estate. We reached an understanding and it allowed me to purchase land that would lead to much good fortune for me and my dear sweet Emily here.

On the land that I purchased I was able to build a log cabin with the assistance of my chain carriers. We built the cabin a good piece away from the Creek near an underground spring aquifer on a high point overlooking the Prairie. The demands of surveying didn't allow me to complete the cabin until 1845 when I was able to come home after surveying several tracts of land. Once I returned to the cabin I was finally able to make the improvements out of in I was thinking about all those long nights sleeping out on the Prairie. I installed wood floors tune out from logs in preparation for my future wife.

Emily:

Would you shut your horse hole and let me talk for a minute?

My Papa - Judge John Love and my mama lived on the other side of Nacogdoches in San Augustine., and so did Georgie known as Judge Terrell in those parts.  That's where Bob and I first met and got married in March of 46. We didn't stay long in Saint Augustine before we set out on our married adventure. On our journey I saw thousands of Buffalo and wild horses everywhere. Deer and turkeys were always in view and sometimes an occasional beer would cross our path. The prairies were boundless and beautifully crowned with flowers of every hue. There were no roads only rough trails that the Indians had used and ox drawn carts seemed to be the only way one could safely travel through these unsettled lands.  Within the first year we had our first child, Christopher.  It wasn’t too long before region became known as Kaufman County in 48.  In 51 while Robert was away surveying a young man came to visit him at that ole’ cabin one day.  I explained Robert wouldn’t be back for a while and offered him some supper for his troubles. Long story short (glares at Robert) before the night was over I traded him 6 deer skins for his 320 acres.  The governor agreed to the deal and my lands ran up towards WD Irvine’s place over on Bachelor Creek. 

Robert:

That’s right. She made a man supper and gave him some furs and ended up a wealthy landowner.

While she was a cookin’ I was busy taking care of my own lands and a quickly growing family.  I continued surveying and increased my fortunes by selling town lots for the new county seat.  By 54’ I had so many kids that I was presiding over School Board Elections.  That log cabin sure was getting small so I set about building the house of my dreams.  I hired a master carpenter and we set about building one of them new fangled round houses.  We brought logs up from Jefferson and hewd them for the foundation and made 12 inch boards for the roof. I was able to get my Emily real shiny glass windows to boot. By 64’ I moved Emily and all those kids into that roundhouse and our last daughter was born within those 8  walls.

Meanwhile the people kept coming and the towns needing forming. 

My girls needed a good education so I set about trying to create a Female Institute with my brother-in-love as the headmaster. Then the talk of the Railway expansion began to spread throughout the county.  Finally it was established that the line was going to come though northern Kaufman County and with that the Texas and Pacific Railway was going to need land rights. I set about giving part of mine and Emily’s lands to the railroad on the condition that a permanent depot would be built within the 100 acre plot that would comprise the rail line.  Within one year of the railway and depot being built a town had sprung up where there had been unoccupied prairie.  Texas Pacific Railroad dubbed the new depot built on our lands as Terrell’s Depot, and by May of 1873 the name simply became Terrell.