AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY: A new history site

A new history site showcasing African-American history in Central Texas has debuted in its unrestored state — as supporters and visitors have requested — so the public can catch a glimpse of this important preservation project from the very start.

Tours through a portion of the house, perhaps the only extant farmhouse from a so-called Freedom Colony, and see a new exhibit outlining the project. Self-guided tours are available of the project on days that Pioneer Farms is open.

The new site will be interpreted for the 1890s, when Jack Dodson and his wife Mary Jane — both formerly enslaved at a Fayette County cotton plantation — purchased it and 115 acres near the nearby Freedom Community of Rose Colony. Living nearby were other prominent African-American pioneers of that era, including Ransom Williams, Ben Van Zandt, Chatham Perry, Richard Washington, and John Rose.

These families were the core of Rose Colony, located near Manchaca. Other African American families who came to the Bear Creek-Rose Colony-Manchaca area were named Alexander, Coats, Dotson, Hargis, Hughes, Pickard, Owens, Scroggins, Slaughter and Sorrells.

  Historical records indicate Dodson worked as a contract laborer in Fayette County after emancipation, and soon migrated to Austin where he bought a wagon and started a successful delivery service. By the late 1880s, he rented a 40-acre farm along Onion Creek in southern Travis County and was farming. In 1891, he purchased the Rose Colony acreage for the princely sum of $3,000, with a $1,000 down payment made from savings. Dodson paid the remainder of the note within a few years. 

As was true in other rural areas outside Austin, the first African American farmers in the Bear Creek-Rose Colony area were newly freed from bondage and, in a segregated world, somehow managed to become successful farmers and business people. They formed their own churches, schools, and fraternal organizations. Jack Dodson is credited with building an AME church in the area in 1891, shortly after he moved there, that today is represented by the New Bethel AME Church on Manchaca Road.

  Initial plans call for restoration of the one-story frame house, which has already had stone chimneys replicated using old photos and materials salvaged from the original site. The house was generously donated by the modern-day owners of the property who wanted to see its history preserved, and was relocated just in the nick of time before bulldozers pulled up to build a commercial development.

Come early to checkout our latest project. Make a donation here to help fund the project and see what historic preservation is all about — from beginning as a ramshackle building into what will transform into a showpiece of important Texas history.