1874 :: Rockdale at Two Weeks of Age

. . . The new line has only been finished to Rockdale since the second day of February, and the company has not had time to complete the extensive stock yards which it is erecting; yet application has already been made by owners for the transportation of over 50,000 head of cattle. The yards, I understand, will be finished within the next week, when Rockdale must necessarily become a busy place and a great cattle centre. In fact, I see nothing to prevent its becoming one of the most important cities in the State. 

It has already, in its short two weeks' existence, become a lumber market for a region of 100 miles around. The International Road runs, through the heart of the great pineries of Eastern Texas and brings to this place about twenty car-loads of lumber a day. There are already three lumber yards here doing a thriving business. 

The people in this section have had heretofore nothing but oak lumber, which has cost them from $35 to $40 a thousand. Now, since the completion of the railway, they can get the best pine for $25. The result is that the planters are putting up elegant residences and abandoning the old log cabin of two rooms and a passage way between, in which they have spent their lives. 

The professional wagoners, who haul the cotton from the plantations, sometimes fifty miles, instead of returning empty handed, buy a load of lumber and sell it on the way back, thus doubling their income of the ante-railway time. This place must become a considerable lumber market, as well as a centre of supplies for the rich counties that lie northwest of here, there being no other railway point within their reach.

Rockdale is situated in Milam county, thirty-five miles west of the Brazos, and in the heart of the cotton region, known as the Brazos uplands, which average a bale to a bale and a half to the acre. It is in the most thickly settled portion of Central Texas, the famous lands and wealthy population of Bell county lying on the north, and whose market and outlet Rockdale must be. 

From 9 o'clock until noon to-day I counted 160 odd bales of cotton brought by wagons into the town and sold for shipment over the International and Great Northern to Galveston. And the town not two weeks old! 

The cotton planting interest of the region, which must make this a shipping point, will alone be sufficient to maintain a considerable city, leaving out the cattle and lumber handling, which must be its main business. 

I am not writing up a mushroom town. I am telling what I see as I go along; and I think I see another Denison, though I don't own any corner lots. When Texas becomes a great and populous State, as she must within the next few years, I am satisfied that Rockdale will be one of the big lettered names on her map. Enoch. Austin Weekly Statesman, March 19, 1874

1914 :: Reporter is 40 Years Old

The Rockdale Reporter was forty years old on the 12th, and has always been a good paper and is still a good paper, and its last issue was one of its best. Cameron Herald (Cameron, Texas), March 19, 1914

1876 :: S H Hume and family

S.M. Hume and family left for Rockdale, Texas, to make a home. Schuyler Citizen & Rushville Times, March 17, 1876

1893 :: Death of Shadrac Taylor

A Venerable Darkey Dead. 

Rockdale, Tex., March 9. -- Shadrac Taylor, an old freedman born in Kentucky 82 years ago, died here yesterday after a protracted sickness. Shade was brought to Texas sixty-two years ago and had been living in Rockdale from the foundation of the town. He leaves a large family of children and grand children. He was buried from the African Methodist church, of which he was long a member. Dallas Morning News, March 11, 1893

1940 :: Death of Billy Colvin

Billy Colvin, 18 year old Freshman student at A&M College was killed at 6 p.m. Sunday on highway 79 a short distance from Gause when the car in which he was returning to college, crashed another machine. Maurice Ferrari of Rockdale, another Freshman at A&M who was returning to the college with Colvin, was critically injured and was rushed to a hospital in Hearne.


The students were riding in a car with Robert Grisom of Houston. The car was proceeding east on highway 79, and Representative Mason D. Harrell of Smithville and a companion, Mrs. Mary Helen Nash of Austin were traveling west. Shortly after the Grisom car crossed a bridge near the George Ditto home the crash occurred. According to information received by the Cameron Daily Herald, the Harrell car was being driven by Mrs. Nance. The representative had been spending the week end in Kosse with the family of Mrs. Nance. He was partially asleep but saw the Grisom car approaching and was unable to explain just how the crash occurred.


Colvin is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Will C. Colvin of Rockdale and Ferrari is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Max Ferrari of Rockdale. The driver of the car, Mr. Grisom, was only slightly injured. Mr. Colvin, father of the dead youth, is constable for Precinct 4.


Funeral services were to be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday from the funeral home of Phillips & Lucky in Rockdale. A detachment of Highway Patrolmen from Austin were in Cameron Monday and in conjunction with the office of Sheriff R.M. Kennedy, an investigation was being made. Cameron Herald, March 7, 1940

1890 :: Altercation in a Restaurant

Rockdale, Tex., March 5. -- On Saturday night a negro called Fred Taylor entered the restaurant of John C. McGuire and insisted on having a seat with the white folks. This resulted in a controversy which ended by the proprietor peppering the colored citizen with a No. 38. The ball entered the lower part of the abdomen and punctured the bladder. The next morning Dr. A.C. Walker performed a surgical operation. Dallas Morning News, March 6, 1890

1874 :: Milam Messenger

The Milam Messenger has been moved from Cameron to Rockdale. Galveston Daily News, March 5, 1874