Allcorn-Kokemoor Farmstead
Brenham, Washington County, Texas
Marker Inscription
ELIJAH ALLCORN IMMIGRATED TO TEXAS IN LATE 1821 WITH HIS WIFE, NANCY (HODGE), AND THEIR SIX CHILDREN AS “OLD 300” SETTLERS IN STEPHEN F. AUSTIN’S COLONY. ON JAN. 1, 1822, A GROUP INCLUDING ALLCORN CAMPED ALONG A BRAZOS RIVER TRIBUTARY WHICH THEY NAMED NEW YEAR CREEK. ALLCORN WAS GRANTED LAND IN CURRENT WASHINGTON, WALLER AND FORT BEND COUNTIES, INCLUDING A PARCEL ALONG NEW YEAR CREEK. HE WAS A FARMER, STOCKRAISER AND FREIGHT HAULER, BRINGING GOODS TO SETTLERS FROM THE FERRY ESTABLISHED AT WASHINGTON-ON-THE-BRAZOS IN 1835. HE ALSO SIGNED THE PETITION REQUESTING ESTABLISHMENT OF THE WASHINGTON MUNICIPALITY. ELIJAH AND NANCY DIED NINE DAYS APART IN 1844. THEIR SON THOMAS JEFFERSON ALLCORN, HIS WIFE AMEY (CAPLE) AND THEIR CHILDREN LIVED HERE FROM THE 1840s to 1870s. ARCHEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION OF ARTIFACTS AND TIMBERS DATES THE OLDEST SECTION OF THE MAIN HOUSE, A TWO-STORY I-PLAN OF BRACE-FRAME CONSTRUCTION, TO c. 1845. A TWO-STORY WING WAS ADDED IN 1877, BY THE WILKINS OR SAMUEL FAMILIES. IN SEP. 1887, OSCAR SAMUEL SOLD THE HOUSE TO HENRY KOKEMOOR FOR $6,100. HENRY MARRIED FRIEDA HOLLE IN 1887 AND BOUGHT THE PROPERTY WITH FINANCIAL HELP FROM HIS FATHER-IN-LAW. THE KOKEMOORS MADE SEVERAL ADDITIONS, INCLUDING A KITCHEN WING AND A MOTHER-IN-LAW ROOM IN THE 1890s. A FINAL ADDITION WAS MADE IN THE 1950s. THE PROPERTY REMAINED IN THE KOKEMOOR FAMILY FOR MORE THAN A CENTURY. EXTERIOR HOUSE FEATURES INCLUDE PROJECTING WINGS, AN L-SHAPED PORCH, METAL-CLAD GABLED ROOFS, WOOD SIDING, AND A VARIETY OF DOORS AND WINDOWS. SIMPLE FINISHES, SUCH AS PAINTED TONGUE AND GROOVE CEDAR AND LONGLEAF PINE WALL AND CEILING BOARDS, DISTINGUISH THE INTERIORS. HISTORIC OUTBUILDINGS AND STRUCTURES, BUILT BETWEEN 1890 AND 1930, INCLUDE A ROCK AND BRICK CISTERN, A BARN, GARAGE, TWO WELLS AND TWO SHEDS. THE HOMESTEAD REPRESENTS EVOLUTION FROM A FORMAL FLOOR PLAN TYPICAL OF THE MID-19TH CENTURY TO A COMPOUND PLAN AND CONTINUING AGRICULTURAL USE INTO THE 20TH CENTURY.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Elijah Allcorn arrived in Stephen F. Austin's colony in late 1821 as one of the "Old 300," the first legal Anglo-American colonists in Mexican Texas, and helped name New Year Creek while camping on its banks on New Year's Day 1822. His family farmed, raised stock, and hauled freight to the frontier settlements clustered around Washington-on-the-Brazos. The main house, dated to about 1845, passed through the Allcorn, Wilkins, Samuel, and finally Kokemoor families, who held it for more than a century and layered on wings, a cistern, barns, and sheds that trace a farmstead's slow growth into the 20th century.
Why it matters
The farmstead preserves the full arc of Texas colonization — from an Old 300 land grant to a working German-American farm — in a single evolving cluster of buildings.
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Related people
- · Elijah Allcorn
- · Nancy Hodge Allcorn
- · Thomas Jefferson Allcorn
- · Henry Kokemoor
- · Frieda Holle Kokemoor
Related events
- · Settlement of Stephen F. Austin's colony
Themes & tags
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