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Roads of the Past in the "Golden Triangle" The Old Plantersville Road Part VI When the traveler was at this point in his journey, he will have come to a north to south road called Jackson Road. This trail came through the town of Bobbin-Bobsville-Dobbin all these names fastened on at times to one settlement. This Jackson Road was the site of a flourishing little community, and once had a post office. The south end of Jackson Road joined the Old Houston Road now FM 149. Mud Branch and Blue Branch ran east and west crossing Jackson Road on the way to empty into Big Lake Creek. Both these branches played a big part in the history of the Old Plantersville Road. James Price spent many happy days and and down Mud Branch with the Griffith boys. The Plantersville Road continued west crossing over FM Road 1486, another route out of Dobbin-Bobbin-Bobsville, this road being the most direct route to Magnolia . Mud Branch was aptly described in the summer time when it dried up in holes, the water for most of it’s length then was the color of mud and teeming with all the many "critters" unable to get out of the watery trap. It was on Mud Branch where my brother and I stopped at one of the isolated pools to water our horses and ourselves were met with a long tall man with a rifle and were told to "hurry up and move on". I had no idea what it meant then, but since have realized it was during the Prohibition and also the Depression and we young cow hunters were causing problems for a certain kind of "cook-off." Mud Branch also was the location of one of the many dipping vats for cattle, during the Depression the Government order that all cattle must be gathered every two weeks, penned and forced to dive into a deep concrete vat filled with the chemicals required to kill the fever tick which killed cattle. The dipping vat that was built close to the juncture of the Old Plantersville Road and Jackson Road and close to Mud Branch served many cattle owners in that area and was then the gathering place for cattle that perhaps hadn’t seen a rider over twice a year and for owners that only saw one another once a year. The range was free and could be called everybody’s pasture. The area seemed limitless. Traveling down Jackson Road to FM 149, turn right along FM 1488 to Magnolia, turn right out FM 1774 to Plantersville then east on now Hwy 105 to Dobbin would include hundreds of thousands unfenced land and since cattle were free to roam at will, that’s what they did. Although it took many years to finally get clean of the fevered tick with cooperation and collaboration of the many free range cowboys it was done. The Mud Branch dipping vat saw neighbor mad at neighbor, a loner making friends, strangers dipping a sick man’s cattle. Mud Branch was the total supply of water for small pastures, for some families and for all the cattle and wildlife in every form. I even saw hundreds of butterflies lit on the muddy shore of one of the cut-off water holes. The most important part Mud Branch played in history comes from the part it played in the choosing of a homesite for the oldest Spanish Land Grant in Montgomery County. There are many more of the Spanish Land Grants in Montgomery County, but the one given to Noah Griffith was the first having the date April 11th, 1831. When the first settlers arrived in the wilderness of the Mexican owned Texas, the first concern was a good source of water, most of the first to arrive had family and livestock which had to have a constant steady supply of water. Mud Branch was the dependable source of water selected by Noah Griffith and he settled there and since April 11, 1861 there has been a successive family of Griffith’s on this land on Mud Branch. Joining James Price in moving west on Old Plantersville Road is Bill Griffith, the youngest surviving son of Taylor Griffith and the great grandson of Noah Griffith. I might add that Bill and his brothers Clinton and Maynard, sisters Gertrude and Mary were born on the Noah Griffith land. Until next week part IIV |
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©Montgomery
County News, 2004 |
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