Alleyton Texas. (original) (raw)

Dr. R. H. Harrison Drugs
Photo courtesy Nesbitt Memorial Library (Enhanced by Steve Morgan)
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History in a Pecan Shell

Alleyton is hardly a household name, yet its importance to the Confederacy is well known by Texas Civil War buffs.

Since it was the end of the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railroadline, it was also the point for distributing supplies that came in from England via Matamoros, Mexico on the "Cotton Road". Even cotton farmers from as far away as Warrenton (Fayette County) would make the trip to Brownsville.

. Alleyton depot during 1913 flood
Photo courtesy Nesbitt Memorial Library
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1936 Centennial Marker - intersection of Center & Alleyton Roads
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, February 2009

1936 Centennial Marker:

Alleyton

Oldest permanent settlement and once largest town in Colorado County. Established by the pioneer Alley family (Willliam, John, Rawson, Thomas and Abraham), all members of Austin's original 300 settlers. Terminus of the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railroad, 1860-1867.

Historical Marker

Alleyton, C.S.A.

Born as War clouds gathered. Alleyton was a key point on the supply line of the Confederate States of American during the Civil War. It was both beginning and end of the cotton road leading to the Confederacy's back door on the Rio Grande River.

By 1860 the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railroad extended from Harrisburg, near Houston. To Alleyton. As a railhead Alleyton became the site of an important cotton station and Quartermaster Depot during the War.

Cotton came here from north and east Texas. From Louisiana, and from Arkansas on the Rails of the B.B.B. & C. and via wagon roads. From Alleyton the South's most precious trading commodity was carried to a point on the Colorado River across from Columbus. A point on the Colorado River across from Columbus. It was then ferried across for the start of a long, tortuous journey to the Rio Grande. The bales of cotton were hauled on big-bedded wagons and high-wheeled Mexican carts, pulled by mules, horses or oxen.

The Cotton Road led to Goliad, San Patricio, the King Ranch and finally to Brownsville. Shreds of white fluff on bush and cactus marked the trail of the wagon trains. From Brownsville the cotton was taken across the river to Matamoros, Mexico and subsequently placed on board ships bound for Europe. As the only major gap in the Federal naval blockade of the Confederacy, neutral Matamoros was the place of exchange for outgoing cotton and imported munitions, clothing and medicine.

When Federal forces took Vicksburg in 1863 the Mississippi River was sealed off and the Confederacy divided. The Texas-Mexico trade routes became the South's major military supply lines in the trans-Mississippi west.

Alleyton was a main destination of the wagon trains returning from the Rio Grande. Rifles, swords, shirts, pants, alum, arrowroot and other items needed by soldier and civilian in the harried Confederacy were unloaded here for new destinations.

Dallas Stoudenmire

Tombstone denoting Dallas Stoudenmire's participation in the Civil War
TE Photo

Alleyton is also the the burial place of Dallas Stoudenmire, a local Confederate veteran turned gunman who became both an El Paso City Marshall and a U.S. Deputy Marshall in El Paso.

Eager to get into his new job in El Paso, he killed 3 men within 3 days of taking the job. It sounds worse than it was since they were all killed in the same fight. Dallas bullied and cursed the city council, but openly apologized when sober.

The apologetic side of his nature shows his good Colorado County upbringing. His homicidal streak he acquired elsewhere. Dallas returned to Columbus long enough to get married in February, 1882 but was shot dead within the year back in El Paso. This occurred some 13 years before John Wesley Hardin (from nearby Gonzales) was also shot dead in El Paso.

The former Alleyton Post Office
TE Photo

Citizens of Alleyton have progressed from the old wooden Post Office to the nice and neat modern metal drive-up boxes. It does make visiting with neighbors a little difficult, but now they can honk at one another.

Today, Alleyton sits undisturbed just East of Columbus and makes an interesting drive-by visit on the way to Eagle Lake and points south.

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