Rockwall Farm
Longview, Gregg County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Large colonial home built 50 yards north, 1854. Overnight stop on Wm. T. Brooks' stagecoach line from Monroe, La., to Tyler. From here, mail went to Earpville, a site now in Longview. Slaves hewed lumber, made the chimney brocks from trees and clay on the place. The first floor partitions folded away to make big ballroom. The black walnut coffin built for house owner John Harris was favored table for poker upstairs. Last owners, J. Roy Sparkman and Jack Castleberry families, restored, opened to visitors. House burned in 1952.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built in 1854, Rockwall Farm's large plantation-style home was an overnight stop on William T. Brooks's stagecoach line running from Monroe, Louisiana, to Tyler. Enslaved people hewed its lumber and made its chimney brick from clay on the place, and the first-floor partitions folded away to open a ballroom. Restored by later owners and opened to visitors, the storied house burned in 1952.
Why it matters
The home records both the reach of the antebellum stagecoach network and the enslaved labor that literally built the plantation South's grandest houses.
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Related people
- · William T. Brooks
- · John Harris
Themes & tags
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