SOMMERSETT BEGINS IN THE EARY 1850s
Our City of Somerset, Texas will begin celebrating 50 years of incorporation as a full-fledged Texas city soon. It’s beginnings on this same plat of land began in 1909 as the First Townsite Company, Inc. Before that, though, old maps show there was a Sommersett Road that connected with the Rossville Road about 2 miles south of the current City of Somerset.
OK. If our current City of Somerset was established here in 1909, as a town, then why is there a road to Sommersett shown on maps BEFORE 1909? The map below illustrates this point. On this 1889 map of the City of San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas is an “interesting road” beginning at Nogolitos Street and extended “off the map” to the southwest. On two sections of that road, very difficult to see in the small scale of this map but shown on the enlarged section below, are printed “SOMMERSETT ROAD.”
The road extending southwest, toward the lower left corner of the 1889 San Antonio City map, is unreadable at this magnification. It is, if you read the enlarged print on the portion of that road at the edge of the map, (see enlargement below) it reads: SOMMERSETT ROAD.
SOMERSET, PULASKI COUNTY, KENTUCKY COMES TO TEXAS
In the 1830s and 40s (Texas became a state, remember in 1845) Texas was said to be “land poor.” This meant there was much land to govern, few folk living in the state, with those few folk having little to no real coinage for taxes and the state government having nothing much to tax, but lots and lots of land that might be sold. Word soon was spread to land speculators outside of Texas that lots of cheap, good land could be had in this new “promised land. ” Hundreds of people entered Texas looking for that new start in life. One of those places was the newly surveyed and unsurveyed land south of the Medina River.
Between 1852 and 1854, wagon loads of two families and one bachelor from the Somerset, Pulaski County, Kentucky arrived in the area. They were the George Washington Marion Duck a farming family of wife Evaline, young children Sarah and Mary; the John, also a farmer, with Elizabeth Ann Jasper family with James Dolorite; and bachelor farmer turned school teacher, William McKinney, who actually hailed from Casey County, Kentucky, next door to Pulaski County.
United States Census 1850 records for Pulaski and Casey County’s show these families living Kentucky. The 1860 United States Census records show all of them now in Texas, but two different counties. The G.W. M. Duck family and Mr. McKinney are in Atascosa County (likely the more northerly part) while John and Elizabeth Jasper, two year old daughter Ann Jasper and a teen James Dolorite are enumerated in that 1860 Census in Bexar County. They lived near the county line when Atascosa became a county in 1856.
MORE ARRIVALS MEANS A WELL TRAVELED ROAD TO A GROWING TOWN OF SOMMERSETT
There were several much older roads in this area. Roads south to southwest from San Antonio took travelers and commerce since the mid 1700s to older ranches, like the Rancho Atascoso, as well as southwestward to Laredo and Monterrey beyond along the old Royal Road, the Camino Real.
And, consider the Medina River with its steep banks and thick growth of trees, brush among the tangles of floodwater deposits of more dead trees. There were only 4 crossings that could be used with any degree of success, not just on foot or by horse, but by wagon. They were Mann’s Crossing, Garza’s Crossing aka Paseo de las Garzas, Palo Alto Crossing, and Applewhite Crossing. (Note: Palo Alto and Applewhite Crossing have been known by other names.)
The road from San Antonio crossing at the Paseo de las Garzas, continued southwest. Nearby the Jasper family settled. As folk like moved in the general area by the 1870s, commerce followed. From Alabama came the McBees and Jordans. Edward Winans came from Illinois. Charles Edwards from Massachusetts, while the Avents, Aarons, Edwards, Harveys, McCain, and Millers arrived by the 1880s from Mississippi. From Tennessee came the Randles and the Box family.
In 1866, when the Medina Baptist church relocated they sought the promise of sharing their Lord with a larger community. Near this growing community 1-2 general stores, a blacksmith shop, a grist mill, a school, a post office, the Medina Baptist Church built a brush arbor.
With a new church now added to this vibrant ranching and farming community, the name provided by those early area residents from Somerset, Kentucky stuck. And, true to the times, you spelled something like you heard it…Sommersett, it was the name given to this town and its community. Today when folk are researching, genealogy for example, they will come across the name “Old Somerset.” Old Somerset is what we now call that place. All that is left is the Old Rock Baptist Church and the Atascosa County Precinct’s Voting Site across the road.
Photo is from the Palo Alto Jr. College History Department collection. Used with permission.
Descendants of the original settlers can still be found living and working in the area. Many of the original settlers are still there in another venue at “Old Somerset,” or Sommersett, as maps in the area spelled it.
IRISH FAMILIES BEGIN ARRIVING IN THE LATE 1850s
In the mid to late 1850s three Irish families arrived and settled in an area 2-3 miles north of Sommersett and “South of Elm Creek,” as their land deeds indicated. Today they located south of and lying across FM 2790 about 2 miles west of modern Somerset, Texas.
Neighbors of the newly arrived Irish were these area’s older families, many of whom were descended from Spanish settlers and soldiers. Descendants of Indians and Spanish worked this area from the early 1800s when San José Mission was secularized. Its lands now distributed to its Indian parishioners and others to whom the Mission had debts to repay. One of those who had loaned the mission money was José Ángel Navarro, father of José Antonio Navarro. He was given the Rancho Atascoso.
Roads in the area of the Bexar County-Atascosa County Line where the new Irish folk settled are still a reminder of their presence: McConnell, McCoy, and Kinney Roads.
THE 1850-1880s “Three Cs” ECONOMY: CATTLE, CORN, COTTON
Land records are available in the Bexar County Courthouse (available on line for free) as are a few other official records showing who lived in this Sommersett area. An important record is the 1850 United States Census (remember the Republic of Texas became the State of Texas in 1845). A few of those who were still living in this “Medina area” are enumerated in the 8 pages of that 1850 U. S. Census. They were Elisha Briggs, Blas Herrera, Francisco Ruiz, Juan Hernandez, William Kerr, Rafael Menchaca, Felix LaSoya, and Antonio Seguin. The Sommerset families from Kentucky were still living in their Somerset, Pulaski County, Kentucky, but arriving in Texas from 1852.
The area’s economy was still one of ranching and farming: Cattle. Corn. Cotton. After the Civil War (1861-1865) more folk began to move in to this area that offered free land for the taking, a food crop of corn, and the “money crops” of wild cattle free for the capture and potential of vast fields of money-making cotton.
This cotton crop was “ginned” locally into baled cotton that was could hauled by wagon to market in San Antonio or be safely stored and sold when money was needed.
After the spring roundup, the area’s stockmen herded their half-wild herds and wild-caught cattle north to Kansas railheads and shipped to eastern markets. These famous trail drives to the north from Texas to Kansas then to a variety of northern markets began in the Pleasanton area.
A road from San Antonio to Rossville brought in the new immigrants to Texas. Many decided to settle in the general area where the two families from Somerset, Kentucky lived. Gradually a small “wide spot in the road” began to attract businesses – a general store, a blacksmith shop, someone who could cobble shoes and boots. The area also had a bookkeeper and a tinner. It is said by some historians there there was also a grist mill for grinding the area’s corn. Like other small communities in the area they also had a needed cotton gin. A school was added as a third man from Somerset, Kentucky was a school teacher. Sommersett had grown into a sizeable community.
Irish families, other newcomers, together with their older Hispanic neighbors now shopped at the “Sommersett general store” and did other business in Sommersett. Life was tough; but life was good and held great promise.
NEXT? PART 2: The Second Sommersett: Bexar Community
