Hatchett's Ferry Inn
Rusk, Cherokee County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Hubbard G. Hatchett (1808-1889) moved to Texas with his family in 1846. They bought property in Cherokee County on this site two miles west of the Angelina River in a community called Atoy. Hatchett built a two-room double pen cabin, common in his native Tennessee, in 1847. In January 1850 Hatchett leased the Rusk Ferry on the river crossing and took over its operation. Among those who used the ferry was Gen. Sam Houston in 1857. Ferry passengers often lodged in private homes within a few miles of the river. A second story was added to the Hatchett home, which the family operated as an inn. After Hatchett's wife Evlina died in 1862, other family members continued to operate the ferry until 1888 when the county installed a bridge nearby. The house remained in the family until the mid-1930s, and was demolished in 1977. (1998)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Hubbard G. Hatchett came to Texas from Tennessee in 1846 and settled near the Angelina River in the Cherokee County community of Atoy, building a double-pen log cabin of the kind he had known back home. In 1850 he leased the Rusk Ferry, and the family soon expanded the house into an inn where river travelers could lodge. Among those who crossed at his ferry was Gen. Sam Houston in 1857, and the operation continued until a county bridge replaced it in 1888.
Why it matters
River ferries and the roadside inns that grew up beside them were the connective tissue of frontier Texas, knitting isolated settlements into a working economy before bridges and railroads arrived.
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Related people
- · Hubbard G. Hatchett
- · Sam Houston
Themes & tags
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