The History of Camp Street in La Grange
Part 2
In August 1860, Governor Sam Houston commissioned William G. Webb, veteran of the Mexican War, legislator, and an attorney in La Grange, as a Brigadier General with orders to organize the 22nd Brigade of the Militia of the State of Texas, comprising the counties of Fayette, Colorado, Wharton and Matagorda. There were four battalions in the brigade with several companies in each battalion. Although the 22nd Brigade was organized in La Grange, not every company trained in the city. There is documentation, however, that the Dixie Grays, a cavalry company, did train in the La Grange vicinity. Webb owned land east of and adjacent to Cedar Creek and the spring branch, both of which would have been beneficial for a cavalry company, so it is conceivable that he offered part of his land as a suitable training camp for the Dixie Grays.
There is also documentation in a journal written by a Union soldier, Corporal Aaron T. Sutton, that a Confederate prison was located on the Colorado River at La Grange close to present- day Northpoint Park or just a short distance down river. It was a small holding prison, built like a stockade with tents that housed captured Union soldiers before they were sent to a larger prison, either in Hempstead or Tyler. The prison was supervised by a commissioned officer, possibly a member of the 22nd Brigade, with security probably provided by the local home guard comprised of boys and older men. An exhibit in the National Prisoner of War Museum at Andersonville National Historical Site in Georgia also validates that La Grange had a Confederate prison. Andersonville is notorious for having been the most despicable, deadliest, dirtiest and overcrowded Confederate prison.
A virtual westward line drawn from the beginning of present-day W. Camp Street leads to the river where the prison may have been located. So not only could a segment of Camp Street have originally been part of the La Bahia Road, but also may have served as a connecting road between the Dixie Grays’ training camp and the Confederate prison.
According to a hand-drawn map in the Fayette County deed records [Vol. 16, p. 41], 136 ¾ acres of land between the west side of Cedar Creek and Horton Street were designated as a proposed town addition called Horton Hill, surveyed in 1881, with lots ranging from three and a half acres to 10 acres located around a central 41-acre tract. The other boundaries for the proposed town addition were Lower Line Street, now E. Travis St., and Upper Line Street if it had continued eastward across Horton Street. Interestingly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Lower Line Street began a short distance from the river on the west side, where it may have originally connected to an early ferry, possibly owned by Hiram Ferrill, then crossed town at an angle and continued through what is now the La Grange Independent School District property, eventually connecting with the Rutersville Road on the east side. At the time of the survey in 1881, E. Travis Street merged into Lower Line Street at Lester Street close to the Old City Cemetery.
Prior to this in 1855, twenty- six acres in the center of that larger tract had been purchased by Albert C. Horton from the Proprietors of La Grange, a group of early-day land investors. Horton was also one of the proprietors, who purchased this land from several others in the group. It included the “mound,” designated as the highest point in the ridge between the town of La Grange and Cedar Creek, hence the name Horton Hill.
For some reason, the Horton Hill Addition never materialized. Instead, John W. White, a local dry goods merchant, purchased some of the lots in the proposed addition from various individuals and acquired the remainder at sheriff auction sales.
In 1902, Alex von Rosenberg purchased 150 ½ acres of land that included the Campground Spring and what was the proposed Horton Hill Addition from the widow and heirs of John W. White, who had built his family home near the present-day Hope Hill subdivision. Alex built his home on the “mound.” In 1911, he sold 70 acres of his land to his son, George von Rosenberg, who then lived on the property and operated a dairy. George’s children and families later had homes along Horton Street. The old George von Rosenberg homestead is gone, but the windmill is still standing in the middle of the Rosenberg Addition that is a small part of the originally proposed Horton Hill Addition. According to a descendent, the von Rosenberg family enjoyed a beautiful spring-fed swimming hole on Cedar Creek for years. Interestingly, she also remembers a trench near the trail, a remnant of the old road, that led to the swimming hole. Family elders said that it had been used for Confederate trash, which validates that an Army camp must have been located nearby. Ironically, the von Rosenberg family also owned land along the river in the general vicinity of the old Confederate prison. Many family gatherings were held there as well, most of which included picnics and swimming in the river.
According to another deed record in 1854, Camp Street was already designated as a city street that served as a border for a tract of land being sold, indicating that the name “Camp” was already used before the Civil War. When the city was platted and streets were named, part of the old Campground Spring Road and earlier La Bahia Road became Camp Street that later connected two significant sites on either side of town.
After the war, the prison was abandoned, and through the years, the springs dried up due to more and more wells tapping into the water table. Old roads disappeared, and time and development erased reminders of the origin of the name of one of our city streets. However, bits and pieces of researched information have been assembled into a bigger picture that now provides insight as to why we have a street with that name.
Sources:
Baker, Billye Beth; von Rosenberg family recollections Fayette County Clerk. Deed records, Vol. K, p. 79 and pp 333-334; Vol. 16, p. 41; Vol. 70, p. 438; Vol. 72, pp 18- 20; Vol. 91, p. 546 Find a Grave. William Graham Webb memorial Sutton, Aaron T., Corporal 83rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Prisoner of the Rebels in Texas; Americana Books, 1978; pp 102116.
Weyand, Leonie Rummel and Houston Wade. An Early History of Fayette County; La Grange Journal, 1936; pp. 245-247
