Barnard's Trading Post No. 2
Glen Rose, Somervell County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Torrey brothers of Connecticut and their childhood friend George Barnard, with President Sam Houston as a partner, contracted to build a series of trading posts along the Brazos River in 1843. Barnard's friendly manner made the Indians his friends, paving the way for more peaceful frontier settlement. In 1846, George ransomed a young girl, Juana Cavasos, from a group of Comanches at the post on Tehuacana Creek near Waco for $300. By 1847 she had married his brother Charles. In 1849, Charles and George established a post within this valley where Charles and Juana would live. In view of Comanche Peak in modern-day Hood County, the second post was four miles north of this site and near a Shawnee-Delaware village. Trading goods from a bulletproof "dog-run" log house, the brothers did an excellent business, and Juana's influence on the region equaled theirs. Two Anglo communities sprang up in the area: George's Creek and Fort Spunky. The government relocated the area's Indian population to Oklahoma in 1859; the need for a trading post dwindled. 1860 found Charles and Juana beginning a community on the Paluxy River, where he built a large stone gristmill. The town that grew around the mill was called Barnard's Mill, later renamed Glen Rose. (1998)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1843 the Torrey brothers and their friend George Barnard—with Sam Houston as a silent partner—won a contract to build trading posts along the Brazos frontier. Barnard's fair dealing earned Native trust, and after ransoming a young captive, Juana Cavasos, from the Comanches, the family settled her with his brother Charles at a post near Comanche Peak. When the government removed the region's Native peoples to Oklahoma in 1859, the trade faded, and Charles built a gristmill whose town became Glen Rose.
Why it matters
Barnard's posts illuminate the fragile, mutually dependent frontier economy between Anglo traders and Native nations on the eve of removal.
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Related people
- · George Barnard
- · Charles Barnard
- · Juana Cavasos
- · Sam Houston
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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After coming to Texas from Tennessee around 1870, William and Mary Lanham settled where the Paluxy River meets White Bluff Creek and helped petition the state to carve out Somervell County. By 1877 Lanham ran a grist mill on the Paluxy, adding a cotton gin a few years later, and a rural community of farms, churches, a school, and a cemetery grew up around the works until fire destroyed the operation in 1898. The settlement slowly faded, and today only the Lanham Mill Cemetery marks where it stood.
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