Settlement Community
Texas City, Galveston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
During Reconstruction, former slaves founded a community known as the Settlement on land platted by Judge William J. Jones for purchase by freedmen. Prior to this, a number of cattlemen moved to this area with their slaves. During the Civil War, George Washington Butler was placed in charge of a containment camp and used slave labor from there to drive cattle for the Confederate Army. After the war ended, Butler continued in the cattle industry, hiring freedmen as cowboys. Some of them lived in the community first known as Highland Tank. The first settlers were Kneeland and Sylvia Britton, and Albert and Priscilla (Britton) Phillips. Calvin Bell, Thomas Britton and David Hobgood were area cowboys and pioneers of the community. By 1870, the Rev. Israel S. Campbell helped begin a church; residents built a sanctuary and school the following year in a community called Campbellville for the Reverend. The pioneering families, however, called it Settlement, shortened from "Our Settlement," declaring the importance of freedom and owning land. The African American community prospered throughout the late 1800s. Many male residents worked on Butler Ranch or as farmers. Also, unique for the time, the commuinty had a high literacy rate. By the early 1900s, residents worked in railroad occupations and later in industry. In 1911, and interurban line came through the community, and Highland Station opened; the Settlement was known as Highlands and La Marque until it was incorporated into the city limits of Texas City in the 1950s. The community began to decline in the 1960s, when many young people left to work in an integrated society. However, rodeos and trail rides have been held as reminders of this once flourishing and self-sufficient community founded by African American cowboys. (2007)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
During Reconstruction, formerly enslaved people founded a community on land that Judge William J. Jones platted for sale to freedmen near the Gulf Coast. Many had been brought to the area by cattlemen, and after the war some stayed on as cowboys for the Butler Ranch while building their own settlement, a church and a school by 1871. Proud of owning land and their freedom, residents called the place "Our Settlement"; it prospered into the early 1900s with an unusually high literacy rate before industry, integration and incorporation into Texas City gradually dispersed it.
Why it matters
The Settlement is a rare and vivid record of African American cowboys and freedmen who turned emancipation into land ownership, literacy and a self-sufficient community on the Texas Gulf Coast.
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Related people
- · William J. Jones
- · George Washington Butler
- · Rev. Israel S. Campbell
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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