Pound, Dr. Joseph M. and Sarah, Farmstead

Established about 1854, the Dr. Joseph M. and Sarah Pound Farmstead consists of a modified mid-19th century log house and its ancillary outbuildings. The last of Dripping Springs' original farmsteads, the property is unique in the community for its longevity and the extent of its preservation. The physical appearance of the house and its outbuildings relates directly to the pattern of events shaping rural life in Dripping Springs during the 19th and early 20th centuries. As the residence of one of the community's first settlers, the property represents the local cultural improvements Pound sought to transform the crude settlement into an established Hill Country community. The farmstead also encompasses potential archeological data that could yield significant insights into everyday life in Central Texas during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Evaluated within the context of Agriculture in Texas, 1820-1950, the property is eligible at the local level of significance for listing in the area of Agriculture, in the area of Exploration/Settlement, and in the area of Archeology (Historic/Non-Aboriginal).

Before Anglo-American settlement in the Texas Hill Country, the Comanche traveled freely throughout the wilderness region. Following the organization of Hays County in 1843, Anglo-American settlers began arriving in the hilly northwestern section of the county. Willis Fawcett is credited as the first Anglo-American settler in the area. According to local tradition, he built a cabin on Barton Creek as early as 1849 (Barkley, 118). In 1853, Fawcett purchased an additional quarter league of land in the area, part of which later became the Pound farmstead. Small groups of settlers from the lowland South migrated to the area between 1850 and 1855. Robert Lee Wallace, a nephew of Robert E. Lee, led a group of Mississippi neighbors on a long journey to Central Texas in 1854 (Barkley, 118). Dr. Joseph M. Pound and his wife Sarah Dunbiken Ward were among this party of immigrants to the region.

Pound brought a superior medical education to Texas. Unlike most medical students of the 19th century who apprenticed with a local doctor, Pound acquired his medical training through a standardized degree program. This program included the study of anatomy, surgery, obstetrics, chemistry and theory at the University of Louisville in Kentucky (Yandell, 33-8). Following completion of his education, Pound moved to Mississippi where he met and married Sarah Dunbiken Ward in November 1853. The newlyweds almost immediately moved to Texas, seeking a warmer climate to placate Dr. Pound's respiratory afflictions (Pistel, 12).

Lured by the promise of fertile land, the Pounds settled in the trading region of the village of Henly in Hays County (Davis, 13). Willis Fawcett, the first Anglo settler in the area, sold 900 acres of his quarter league to the Pounds, who eventually constructed a double pen dogtrot house about half a mile northeast of present-day Dripping Springs (Hays County Deed Records, Vol. C, 122). Pound built the house of rough-hewn cypress logs cut from along the Jackson Branch of Onion Creek (Founders' Day Speech), chinking them with local limestone. Although one of these pens was eliminated in the course of the evolution of the house, preliminary archeological investigations conducted in 1992 identified one of its stone footings. Further archeological studies coordinated with the planned restoration program could reveal the boundaries of the original building, verify the oral tradition that no fireplace heated this pen, and perhaps uncover additional artifacts from the second half of the 19th century. This same investigation also uncovered stone footings that confirmed the existence of a stone shed (no longer extant) historically attached to the north wall of the surviving log pen. Further investigation will focus on the use of the room (oral tradition claims it was a half cellar), its boundaries, and the method with which it was attached to the log pen. Such archeological investigations are crucial in determining the evolution of the house as they will reveal data no longer available elsewhere in the area on local construction techniques.

Like those of many other Hill Country pioneers, the building skills the Kentucky-born doctor brought with him to the new frontier hailed from his Upper Southern cultural background (Jordan, 1969, 88). Immigrants from the southeastern Pennsylvania/Delaware Valley region brought along construction techniques of the Midland log tradition as they settled the Appalachian region of the Upper South (Kniffen and Glassie, 59). Dr. Pound's Irish ancestors traveled along many of the main routes of cultural diffusion on their journey from Pennsylvania to Kentucky. Bespeaking this traditional influence on the Pound House, the corners of the log pen are joined by V-notches. Occurring frequently in both Kentucky and Pennsylvania, this joint became one of the four most dominant joinery styles in Texas (Jordan, 1978, 49).

The Pound House was fairly typical of early Anglo-American dwellings built in the region. According to long-time resident Bradley Davis, the Moss and Wallace families who journeyed to Texas with the Pounds also built log dwellings about 1854. Sarah's sister and her husband, John Moss, built a log house one-mile northeast of the Pounds' home. Robert Wallace constructed his family's log cabin about half a mile south of the Pound farmstead. Although no longer extant, these buildings were probably similar in design and construction to the Pound House due to the local sources of building materials and skilled labor, as well as shared cultural traditions.

The only other known extant example in the region from this period stands 18 miles to the southeast, outside the town of Kyle. Built by slave labor for Claiborne Kyle about 1850, this dwelling also employed the dogtrot form and cypress log construction (Strom, 170). The Kyle House, however, features four linear pens joined by the square-notch method more typical of the cultural traditions of the Deep South (Kyle Eagle, 7 August 1991).

Although it is not known if enslaved African Americans accompanied the Pounds on their journey from Mississippi to Texas, census records indicate that a pair of seventeen-year-olds formed part of the Pound household by 1860 (U.S. Department of Commerce, 1860). According to the Pounds' great-granddaughter, a few slaves cooked for the Pounds and helped them tend the farmstead (Owens, 1990). Oral tradition recalls that a one-room log cabin near the main dwelling housed the Pound family slaves. The nearness of the cabin suggests the necessity of planning for protection against raiding Comanches during this early period. It also reflects the slight breakdown of class barriers that occurred in Central Texas, where small farm owners and their slaves often worked the fields side by side (Texas Almanac, 1992, 42). Further archeological investigation holds the potential to confirm the reported location of this building between the northwest end of the surviving log pen and the extant smokehouse. It could also provide data invaluable to developing an understanding of the lifestyles of enslaved African Americans during the antebellum period. Such data is now only available from a small number of sites in Texas and no other currently known site would document the extension of the institution of slavery this far west. This site also contains the potential to provide information on the changing styles of material goods used in African American households, construction methods employed for slave quarters, and the relationship between African American and Anglo cultures on the frontier.

Like many Hill Country farms of the 1850s, the Pound farmstead consisted of various outbuildings loosely arranged around the main dwelling to provide convenient access and security in the face of Comanche raids (Hollingsworth, 1). Plots of crop, pasture, and woodland extended beyond the buildings at the heart of the farmstead. Among the buildings and structures nearest the house, the circular stone cistern (partially enclosed by a later addition to the house) and the limestone smokehouse were perhaps the most important to daily life on the frontier. A stone hot frame sunk into the ground to the southeast of the house sheltered tender plants, enabling the Pounds to grow species other than the rugged vegetation native to the Texas Hill Country.

Despite the hardships of rural pioneer life, Pound strove to provide the new settlement with basic cultural institutions. In 1854, he welcomed the first Methodist church services in the area into his family's home. Its dogtrot plan proved ideal for such a purpose, with worshippers putting their children to bed in the east room and listening to services held across the breezeway in the west room (Barkley, 120). The log house served as a temporary gathering place for the Methodist congregation for the next two years. In addition, a tutor engaged by the Pounds provided instruction to a small group of local children at the house, making it the first educational facility in the new community (Historic American Buildings Survey, 1988).

Sparse settlement in the area, coupled with the reluctance of most people at that time to seek medical attention, made establishing a steady medical practice difficult for Pound. The patients who did consult him often were unable to pay cash for his services, "even though doctors' fees were small enough" (Ferris, 44). These people usually reimbursed the doctor for his services with produce such as eggs and butter, or with animals such as chickens. Pound may have bartered for labor or materials in constructing later additions to his house. "Many times he never got paid," insisted his great-grandson Robin Stephenson, "but that did not make any difference to him. He loved his profession and also his fellow man," (Austin American-Statesman, 1986).

Like many other 19th-century physicians, Pound sought to supplement income from his medical practice using a second occupation (Ferris, 132). During this early period, he raised horses, milk cows, and cattle, along with the corn to feed them, on 50 acres of improved land (Hays County Agricultural Schedule of Production, 1860). Pound also listed his occupation as a "farmer" in the 1860 census, underscoring the important economic role his farmstead played in his finances.

By 1860 the outlying settlement of Dripping Springs was well established as a community. With its own post office, the town served as a stagecoach stop and featured flagstone sidewalks (Barkley, 119). At the onset of the Civil War, Pound and many of his fellow citizens left their farms and families to join the Confederate armed forces. The doctor served two years as a surgeon in Arkansas before returning home to recover from scarlet fever (Stovall, 436). Upon regaining his health, Pound joined the Frontier Battalion, Company F, 18th Texas Cavalry, Mountain Remnant Brigade. In addition to serving as a surgeon, he also drilled troops on a "large open area at Walnut Springs, a mile south of Dripping Springs on the Wimberley Road" (Harwell, 40).

The end of the Civil War in 1865 marked a profound shift in the development of the Central Texas region. Economic hardship persisted throughout the Reconstruction era, as many small farms lost valuable labor and military rule stifled local economic and cultural growth. The lack of significant physical development on the Pound farmstead between 1860 and 1870 reflected the impact of these trends.

The Hays County Agricultural Schedule of Production for 1870 reveals that the Pounds' improved land decreased to 15 acres following the war. Livestock and crop production increased towards the end of the period, however, as the Pounds began growing cotton and could afford hired labor. After the Civil War, cotton farming developed into a major cash crop in Central Texas. Like many small towns in the region, Dripping Springs boasted a gin (Stovall, 439) to process the cash crop. The Pound farmstead produced an annual average of two bales of cotton during this period. While not a significant yield for the period, this amount proved sufficient to supplement the family's income.

Dr. Pound also resumed his medical practice following the war, making house calls throughout the community and seeing patients in his home. Like most 19th-century physicians, he traveled mainly by horse, often covering long distances over rough terrain in pursuit of his daily practice (Ferris, 39). He also may have initially maintained an office in the western log pen of his home for visiting patients (Owens, 1990), offering accommodation to the sick and wounded (Texas Historical Commission, 1965). As Pound mixed his medicines, further archeological investigation under the flooring of this extant log pen could potentially reveal undisturbed data on the 19th-century medical profession in Central Texas.

Following the end of Reconstruction, the pace of development quickened throughout the Central Texas region. A campaign to improve educational facilities swept through the area, fueled by dissatisfaction with the administration of existing schools. Radical Reconstructionists retained control of local schools such as the Johnson Institute, often holding classes only three or four months out of the year (Stovall, 457-8). The impetus to establish additional educational facilities stemmed from a desire to control the quality of education, rather than a need to address a scarcity of educational opportunities. This desire resulted in the commencement of the construction of the Dripping Springs Baptist Academy in 1880. As one of three founding trustees, Pound played a key role in establishing the school by accepting donations of building materials (Barkley, 119) or pledges of labor instead of payment from his patients (Stovall, 435). Residents constructed the new stone school building with local labor and materials, completing it in 1882. With almost 150 students enrolled by 1884, the school soon fulfilled the community's aspirations (Dobie, 56-7).

Pound's facilitation of the community's most significant building project probably coincided with the enlargement of the double-pen dogtrot cabin on his farmstead. With his family outgrowing their accommodations of the previous 30 years, Pound constructed a 2-room wing to replace the east pen of the log cabin. Using the quickest and cheapest construction techniques available, Pound clad the simple box-frame addition in fashionable board-and-batten siding. The resultant dwelling reflected the vernacular L-plan tradition evident elsewhere in the community at the time (Hardy-Heck-Moore, 1988). Following its completion, Dr. Pound moved his office into the northernmost room, devoting the space to visiting patients and the preparation of medicines.

As he made these modest additions to the main house, Pound also implemented innovations elsewhere on the farmstead. In a manner typical of farms throughout the region, Pound turned increasingly to livestock production late in the 19th century. By 1880 the farmstead encompassed 39 acres of improved land, including 11 acres of pasture housing 40 horses, 20 head of cattle and other livestock valued at $1000 (Hays County Agricultural Schedule of Production, 1880). Pound added 60 more head of cattle to these holdings by 1893 (Hays County Tax Rolls, 1893). This increased scale of livestock production necessitated the installation of wire-fencing to control livestock and a method of providing them with water. Pound drilled a well during this period, installing a windmill to fill a stone reservoir and its attached trough to provide a constant supply of fresh water. By the early 20th century, the farmstead contained several other outlying buildings, including a smithy, a buggy shed, and at least one double crib barn for storing fodder. In response to a growing market for poultry and eggs, the Pounds also installed numerous chicken coops dotting the grounds behind the house (Texas Almanac, 50).
The outhouse remained in use throughout this period, although it would have been relocated many times. Such evolution of the farmstead's physical fabric in response to changing trends in the agricultural economy throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries typified the rural experience in the region.

Changes came to the house as well during this period. The Pounds replaced the original board-and-batten siding of the east addition with more fashionable horizontal clapboard siding following the turn of the century. They also added a dining room and kitchen wings to the house between about 1900 and 1910, using the same construction techniques of the earlier addition. Preliminary investigations of these techniques revealed important data for establishing approximate dates for the evolution of the house. As these dates sometimes conflicted with oral tradition, further archeological investigations will be crucial in verifying them as well as revealing additional information on construction techniques.

While pursuing improvements to the family farmstead, Pound's commitment to community causes continued unabated. In the summer of 1896, he helped organize Camp Ben McCulloch as a retreat for Confederate veterans. Named for a hero of both the Mexican and Civil wars, the camp was located outside the nearby town of Driftwood (Wyatt, 56). Established as part of a national trend of nearly two thousand Confederate encampments, Camp Ben McCulloch came to be the largest in the South (Stovall, 464-5).

Memorialized as "a man whose knowledge and ability were greater than he ever realized," Dr. Pound died on 20 October 1914 at the age of 88 (Kyle News, 20 April 1928). His family buried him at Wallace Mountain Cemetery just west of Dripping Springs (Stovall, 439). His farmstead bespeaks the first 60 years of the town's development, reflecting the adaptation of its built environment to social and economic change. Symbolically coincident with his death, the arrival of the first automobile in Dripping Springs presaged the transformation that would come to pass in his rural agrarian world.

The sole provider of medical services in Dripping Springs throughout its initial period of development, Dr. Pound played an instrumental role in nurturing the institutions that supported its evolution from frontier settlement to established community. As the site of Dripping Springs' first religious and educational endeavors, his house possesses significance through its direct association with his efforts to foster local cultural improvements. Surviving architectural and archeological fabric on the farmstead also bespeaks the evolution of the local agrarian economy.

Finally, the archeologically significant property may yield data with the potential to provide important insights into our understanding of several areas of human activity, including:

1. artifactual information that may reveal information on the economic and cultural changes within one family over a period of 100 years, as well as information on day-to-day life in rural Central Texas during the 19th and 20th centuries; and


2. potential data on the cultural and material life of African Americans and their interaction with Anglo culture; and 3. data affecting construction methods in the Hill Country, such as the local availability of materials and the evolution of local building techniques, which is not available elsewhere in the region; and


3. data on yard patterning in the Hill Country that would provide significant information for developing comparative models to the rest of the state.

The site remains virtually undisturbed due to the continual occupancy by one family for more than 100 years. The house, its outbuildings and the surrounding grounds contain a wealth of artifacts relevant to two different cultural groups, Anglo and African American. Further archeological investigation could reveal data on features documented by oral tradition that are no longer extant, revealing potentially significant information on yard patterning in the Texas Hill Country. Very little information is known at this time on yard patternings in this region. A study at the Pound Farmstead focused on building placement and agricultural practices could provide important information for comparison with other areas of the state. In addition to the surviving stone smokehouse, double crib barn and outhouse, evidence suggests the historic presence of a blacksmith facility, a buggy shed, slave quarters and chicken coops. The yard scape also encompasses a windmill, fences, a wood corral and the remnants of a garden, including a hot frame, grape arbor, cistern, and stone walkways. Archeological investigation could also identify sites and artifacts related to trash pits and latrine locations, thereby significantly expanding our understanding of rural life in the Texas Hill Country during the 19th and 20th centuries. Such data would also facilitate comparisons with those areas of the state such as North Central and East Texas that have been more thoroughly studied. The entire contents of the house also survive, including artifacts such as clothing, medical equipment, common household objects, furniture, farm tools and implements, and a multitude of other artifacts representing everyday life over more than 100 years. While the period between 1854 and 1914 comprises the site's primary date of archeological significance, numerous artifacts from the second quarter of the 20th century may later extend the property's significance for future generations.