"Rockdale, my hometown, is Texas' heart and significant part of its soul," George Sessions Perry wrote in his book, Texas: A World Unto Itself. Perry wrote with lifelong affection about his hometown, first as a novelist and later as a magazine journalist. He describes the pioneers of Rockdale as typical of restless Southerners who hitched their wagons and moved to Texas after the Civil War. . . . Clay Coppedge . . .
Dallas Morning News, July 23, 1887. Rockdale, Tex., July 22. -- The first bale of new cotton came in last night. It weighed 532 pounds, classed strict middling and was purchased by A. Steinberg for straight $50 and was shipped to Galveston. This cotton was raised on the plantation of Dr. A.C. Isaacs, about five miles north of town, and the owner received an additional $50 as a bonus from the town. This bale is in ten days earlier than the first bale last season. The weather here has been intensely hot for some time and vegetation generally has suffered, but a msot refreshing shower fell this evening, cooling the atmosphere and laying the dust. Cotton is still looking well in this section, but this evening's rain north, south and east has doubtless helped it.
