WINEDALE
Sam Lewis's Dream
Samuel Knight Lewis was oorn on January 20, 1807
in South Carolina to
James and Mary Lewis. He had four brothers and one sister. Later
the family
moved to Clark County Alabama, where his father died in 1820.
Records at Chatom, Washington County, Alaooma
show Samuel and
Marchell Ann Moore were married on October 25, 1830 by James K.
Blaunt.
At that time Samuel owned a large plantation just across the
state line in
Mississippi, where the couple lived for the next eight years.
Two sons were born
on the plantation. Burwell in 1833, and Harvey in 1834.
Texas is and has always been a confluence of
physical and cultural factors which
have produced its uniqueness. Tracng the origin and
development of the
imperial dreams of Texans makes a most interesting and important
study.
The human geography of Texas, its culture, its way of life, its
people of different
languages, make it a state of mind as much as a physical state.
Texas was the most northern part of Mexico, when
Mexico won
independence from Spain. It was so far from a settlement
it was not a desirable
place to live. Moses Austin was given a grant to settle 300
families in the
Brazos River Valley. Before he could begin this mission, he got
sick and died.
On his deathbed his son, Stephen, agreed to carry out the
mission. Stephen Austin
worked very hard and brought in many families. By the time
the Republic of
Texas was born, in 1836, Austin realized that men of education
were needed.
He advertised here and in Europe - free land with un- bounded
personal and
political liberty to educated men that would come and settle
here.
Sam Lewis read these advertisements and finally
decided to go to Texas,
arriving in Brazoria County in November of 1838. He found Texas
a republic
government which gave a man a chance to go up in the world. He
settled his
family for the winter and begin searching for the land he wanted
to
live on for the rest of his life.
Sam was a surveyor and did not need the money,
so he took his fee in land. The
rate for surveying was 1/4 of the land surveyed. The people
always got more
land than they could handle at once, so they were glad to give
land instead of money.
By spring Sam found land in Austin County where
he :ould move his family to
and put his slaves to work, while he continued surveying and
getting more land.
On July 6, 1841, Sam Lewis was issued free land
in Austin County. The head
of the household got 640 acres, 320 acres for his wife, 110
acres for each of
his two sons, BO acres for each of the six slaves he owned, for
a total of 1,820
acres. There were very few schools in Texas at that time, and
being a highly
educated man, he realized the wonderful opportunily awaiting
him. He knew
everyone must be educated to make this a great and prosperous
Republic. There was plenty of timber on the land to build a home
and all the
buildings, including a school house. He insisted all of his
employees and their
families learn to read and write, even the slaves.
Miss Annie Perletz was an early teacher on the Lewis Settlement.
That part of Texas is one of the richest areas
of the state. It is on the same
parallel of latitude as Palestine, has a wonderful climate, 41
inches of rain a year,
lots of fruit and nut trees, grapes, berries, several kind of
delicious greens, herbs, sugar cane, leaves and roots to make
medicine, and even
bees for honey and candles, and indigo to dye beautiful blue
cloth. There were
streams full of fish and plenty of game.
To the settlers this really seemed like the Garden of Eden.
From the beginning Sam took an interest in
everything happening around him
and Texas had a lot happening. Due to his education, Sam lewis'
opinion was
valued and he was soon in politics. He was in the House of
Representatives
from 1844-1845, the last year of the Republic of Texas.
Washington
on the Brazos was the first city in the United States named for
George Washington.
It was surveyed in 1834 and was the number two city in Austin's
colony. On
March 17, 1836 an election was held, officers were elected and
Washington on the
Brazos was declared the capitol of the Republic of Texas. Sam
Houston was
the first and last president of the Republic of Texas. In 1838
the capitol was
moved to Austin. Political squabbling had the capitol moved
three
times in 1842, to Washington on the Brazos, to Houston, then to
Austin, where
it has stayed. Texas was admitted to the United States on
December 29, 1845 and
became The Lone Star State.
In Austin County, six more children were born to
Sam and his wife. Lota in 1843,
Andrew Jackson in 1844, and Felix Grundy in 1845. Then twins
were born in 1848,
Thomas Jefferson and Kate Marda.
Their last daughter, Jennie, was born in 1856.
In 1848 Sam Lewis learned the stage route was to
be extended into his area.
He quickly purchased 145 acres of land with a cabin built by
William S.
Townsend and 640 additional acres to connect this to the land
he already owned. He did this before the general public found
out about the
stage extension. The Sawyer and Riser stage went from Houston to
Brenham,
Austin and San Antonio.
Townsend was one of Austin's colonists in the
old "300" (land granted by the
Mexican Government in 1831). He built a one room cabin of native
cedar,
for his bride, Mary Burnham, in 1834. All cabins had to have a
loft
as a lookout for Indians and a place to hide in when the Indians
came along,
which was often.
The cabin was built of native timber so Sam
Lewis used native timber to
enlarge it to accommodate his family, and his future plans. He
added extra
rooms downstairs and turned the loft into a full second story
with a breeze
way dividing the north and south of the upper and lower parts of
the house.
Stairways are outside as well as inside. Across the front
he built a gallery
running the full length of both the upper and lower with neat
railings to
enclose the porches.
A separate kitchen building was constructed at
the rear, a safe distance from
the main house for protection from heat and fire. A smokehouse
was constructed
beside the kitchen. Another school house was built. An animal
powered cotton gin was built with heavy cedar beams, and other
barns and sheds
and houses for his slaves. Sam Lewis moved his family in
and planted a
garden behind the house with all kind of vegetables and herbs,
which always provided them with plenty of fresh vegetables to
eat.
Sam Lewis had enough land to keep clusters of
people from settling close to him.
He had his own settlement which was self sufficient.
Being a shrewd business man, it was not hard for
him to get the stage to stop
at his place to change horses and let the passengers rest a bit
and eat.
First known as Sam Lewis' Stopping Place, it became Winedale
Inn, in
tribute to the homemade wine served to the weary travelers. This
practice
begin with a bumper wild grape harvest and continued as a result
of the
popularity of the wine.
In addition to the Inn, Sam Lewis operated a
large farm and continued his
surveying over a wide area as new Texas lands opened up. As he
continued to
take his fee in land, he acquired lots of land. He preferred to
survey
where there were no schools. He educated his children and told
them,
"Storms and fire can take away your home but nothing can take
away your
education". As each of them got married he gave them a section
of land one
hundred miles or more away. He sent two couples in the same
vicinity, 15 or
20 miles apart so they would not get too homesick. The section
of Land Lota
received was in Bosque County.
I was born on that ranch - she is my grandmother.
When Sam Lewis died in 1867, his estate was
listed as 2,356 acres of land in
Fayette County, 6,787 acres and ten city lots scattered over
thirteen other
counties of east Texas. After Sam Lewis died his widow and some
of the
family remained at Winedale until her death in 1881, at which
time the
property was sold. A buyer could not be found
for such a large place so it was cut up and sold to several
buyers.
In the mid 1800's Texas saw a great influx of
immigrants from Europe.
Joseph Wagner, a German, with his wife and two sons settled in
Round
Top, Texas, while Sam Lewis was building the Inn. He was a
shoemaker and now he
was ready to retire and enjoy the fine old house that Townsend
had started
and Sam Lewis had completed. Joseph Wagner purchased the Inn
plus 200
acres of the land, ending the English influence on the old house
and beginning
the German phase. Joseph Wagner did not need the cotton gin and
remodeled
it into a hay barn with a loft.
Joseph Wagner and his wife enjoyed the luxuries
of this wonderful old house
only a few years before his death. His son then lived there but
did not keep it up.
When he died in 1961 the house was in a very bad state
of decay, with the roof leaking in many places.
Mrs. Hazelledbetter of Houston purchased the Inn
From the Wagner heirs.
Being interested in historic preservation, she realized the need
to preserve the Inn.
In 1963 this historic property was purchased by
Miss Ima Hogg of Houston, a
noted philanthropist and a daughter of a former Texas governor,
the Honorable
James Stephen Hogg. Miss Hogg completely refurbished the famous
land mark, inside and outside, restoring it to its original
glory. No pains were
spared to make the restoration authentic. Timber was cut
from the farm itself,
just as the original timber for the house had been, square nails
were ordered,
and old paints were duplicated.
Other buildings were moved onto the Winedale
property as part of a project
to preserve important examples of Texas architecture. In
assembling these
historical buildings at Winedale, Miss Hogg created a community
of structures where historically there were none.
Hazel's Lone Oak Cottage, a gift from Mrs. Hazel
Ledbetter, built about
1868 on land granted by Mexico to one of Austin's colonists was
moved to
Winedale. This is a typical Texas dog run house, two rooms
on either
side of an off center breezeway, with a front porch running the
width of the house.