Good, Isham Jones, Homestead

The Isham Jones Good Homestead contains several historic features, the most significant of which are a creamery and cistern. They are outstanding examples of early limestone buildings and structures built by a pioneer settler in Hays County, Texas in the mid-19th century. Isham Jones Good was one of the first Anglo settlers to venture into the western part of Hays County in the early 1850s and he was the first to settle on this parcel of land. Jones was a veteran of the Texas War for Independence and his grave, on the property, is marked with a state marker. Jones went on to be an intrepid Indian fighter and helped form Caldwell County out of Gonzales County. Leaving civilization behind, he ventured into yet a virtual wilderness when he came to western Hays County in 1853. Every structure was built by hand and in the years before the invention of dynamite, Jones chiseled the limestone blocks for all of his structures. The building that has been known for decades as the creamery may have served as an early one-room house.
Later, Good built a larger house nearby, but it was demolished and only the cornerstones survived. The creamery is a small, rectangular high-pitched side-gabled one-room house constructed entirely of stone with a single, central door leading from a full-façade porch supported by cedar posts. It has a new standing seam metal roof and a concrete porch floor. The original (or very early) door and hardware remain intact. Spring water was diverted in the past to flow into the building and through the basins. The cistern, a four-foot-tall shaft above a cavernous fifty-foot-deep underground bowl, collects spring water that seeps from an uphill source. Constructed entirely of nearly square limestone blocks, the cistern's lip is fabricated from two large semi-circles of stone 4' 9" in diameter pieced together with a central square cut out for a bucket hole. The building and structure stand in testament to the ingenuity of pioneer settlers. An old country road, a ca. 1930 horse barn and the Isham Jones Good's stone-walled gravesite survive in the district and are counted as Contributing elements. The property is related to the Rural Properties of Hays County Multiple Property Historic Context and is nominated to the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion A for Exploration and Settlement and under Criterion C for Architecture.

Historic Narrative

Located in Central Texas between the Texas state capital of Austin on the north and the old Spanish city of San Antonio on the south, Hays County remained largely rural from its settlement years in the mid-1840s until the 1980s when developers began subdividing ranch and farmland to house the overflow populations of its neighbors. As the "high tech" boom demanded more suburban growth, formerly separate communities in northern Hays County are quickly melding into one large "bedroom" suburb of Austin. New roads are being built and old ones are being paved, improved, and enlarged in response to the exponential growth. This is in stark contrast with the area's characteristically tempered growth throughout its history.

Neither Native Americans, who established seasonal campsites at springs and along creeks in Central Texas for more than 10,000 years, nor the first Spanish explorers who passed through the region, built permanent settlements in present Hays County. The Spanish attempted the first European colony in present Hays County in the early 19th century, but San Marcos de Neve survived only a few, disastrous years plagued by floods and repeated Indian attacks. It wasn't until after the Mexican War (1846-1848) that Americans began making any noteworthy inroads into what is now Hays County.

While the army afforded settlers greater protection from Indians after the war, settlement in the western section of the county was sparse, largely because the rocky land did not lend itself well to farming. Settlements tended to grow along permanent waterways such as Onion Creek or the San Marcos and Blanco rivers. When those places were taken, however, other permanent sources of water were prized as settlements. Bear Creek was one such spot and in the early 1850s, a few pioneer settlers ventured into northern Hays County to claim land along its banks. Among them was Isham Jones Good.

Isham Jones Good was the first Anglo settler to live on the land now known as his homestead. Good was born in Upson or Stewart County, Georgia on March 14, 1814, and came to Texas in 1835 with a group of volunteers to join in the Texas War for Independence. On November 17, 1835, twenty-one-year-old Isham Good joined a group of 35 men under the command of Captain William A.O. Wadsworth and set out for Texas. Part of the Georgia Battalion, they followed Colonel James W. Fannin into battle but escaped death or capture in the Goliad Massacre in March 1836. Good was honorably discharged by Mirabeau B. Lamar, Secretary of War, on May 17, 1836, in consideration of "fidelity and valor" and for "the extreme sufferings which he has had to encounter in the service of Texas...".

After Texas Independence, Good married Melissa Trantham in Alabama and the two returned to Texas to what was then Gonzales County in 1838. Good applied for a headright certificate for one league and one labor of land following his service in the war. Although he first settled near the town of Gonzales, he soon moved his family to a spot on the road to Austin, the new capital of the Republic, to set up an inn or "Halfway House". Good occupied himself in a variety of ways to make a living for his growing family; he and Melissa had four children between 1839 and 1844. Good served as the first postmaster when the Plum Creek postal station was established and he became a civic and business leader, and land speculator. He was instrumental in the formation of Caldwell County, to the east of Hays County, and served as its first sheriff (Texas Historical Commission Subject Marker). In 1840, he and W. W. T. Smith were elected land commissioners from Gonzales County to detect fraudulent land claims for the Republic of Texas.

In August of 1840, a large war party of as many as 600 Comanche and Kiowa Indians raided the town of Victoria and the port of Linnville on the Texas coast. As they retreated to safety in the Hill Country, their route took them past Isham Good's house near Plum Creek. Several hundred volunteers from Gonzales, Austin, Bastrop and other settlements gathered at Good's house to stop the Indians. Their defeat at Plum Creek marked an end to the constant threat of attack in the region. As a result, more settlers began to move into the northern portion of what was then Gonzales County.

As settlement steadily increased in northern Gonzales County, Good and others petitioned for a new county to be created around the area of Lockhart Springs. One reason the men argued for a new county was the great distance from the Lockhart Springs/Plum Creek area to the county seat at Gonzales. Another likely reason was land speculation. In 1847, Isham Good was the first of 106 names on a petition to carve Plum Creek County out of Gonzales County with Lockhart Springs as the county seat. The State Legislature agreed with the concept but changed the name to Caldwell County for Indian fighter Mathew Caldwell and reduced Lockhart Springs simply to Lockhart.

Land speculation commenced as soon as the county was established. Surveyors descended on the newly declared Caldwell County and the area around Lockhart Springs was divided into tracts and blocks of land for sale. As a county seat, the land would be prime real estate. Isham Good was among the earliest of the land speculators. Between 1846 and 1848, he had acquired 27 town lots and by 1849 he owned 37 lots and as an assignee for several other persons (Brice 1984: 7). Anticipating the creation of the county, Good had sold his home and part of his land and moved to the future county seat.

In Lockhart, Good owned a hotel and was the acting agent for the Austin and Gonzales weekly mail stage. Good was active not only in business but in social and civic activities; he hosted public barbecues on the Fourth of July, was a school trustee for the Lockhart Academy, and served the county as its first sheriff. With his many business, political and social activities in Lockhart, Good had achieved substantial success relative to the experience of most Texas pioneer settlers. It remains a mystery, then, why Good suddenly decided to leave his comfortable situation in Lockhart and build a new life in a virtual wilderness still inhabited by Indians. In 1850, he began to sell a number of his Lockhart town lots and property and by 1853 he had disposed of most of his land holdings in Caldwell County.

In 1852, Good, Mr. Long, and Professor Thomas Jefferson Johnson joined John W. Wuthrich who had settled at what became known as Bear Creek the year before. They were the founders of the little settlement at Bear Creek, now an extinct community. Luis Capt had established a grist mill some distance from the settlement in 1851. The community was strung out along Bear Creek, which rises in northern Hays County and flows southeast for about 16 miles to its mouth on Onion Creek, a mile south of Manchaca in Travis County (Handbook of Texas Online: Bear Creek, Hays County).

It is not known why Good and the others chose Bear Creek in western Hays County (Irma G. Doffing, Texas War for Independence Veterans' Grave Marker Program files). The land was rocky and not particularly conducive to farming but the isolation and natural beauty may have been compelling. One reason for the settlement at Bear Creek may simply have been the beauty of the place. Professor Johnson extolled the virtues of nature and scenic environments and described the pollution and degradation of cities. He believed that children should work and learn in rural settings and urged parents to send their children to the country to go to school. That is possibly why he, Good and the others left Lockhart as it was beginning to turn into a city and built a new school in an unspoiled environment.

Good and Johnson had come from Lockhart where Good was a school trustee for the Lockhart Academy (Brice 1984: 7) and Johnson was a teacher (Handbook of Texas Online: Johnson, Thomas Jefferson). The two men probably collaborated on the move to Bear Creek which may have centered on Johnson's new school. Johnson is well-known in Hays County history for establishing the Johnson Institute, originally a private boys' school, later made co-educational, on the Friday Mountain above Bear Creek. Four of Johnson's children taught at the school and it enjoyed a sound reputation both for day and boarding students. The school drew hundreds of students to the Bear Creek community in its early years; when Johnson died unexpectedly in 1868, two hundred students were enrolled at the school.

In 1853, three more families - those of Calvin and Ben Rowell and Peter Wuthrich - made their homes on Bear Creek, and in 1856 Frederick Wille joined the group. Two years later, John Wahrenburg and Overton Oldham settled on the creek (Storm 1986: 469). Within a few years, Bear Creek was a thriving - if scattered- community of close-knit families and a very successful country school. Luis Capt acted as the postmaster through the 1850s.

Isham Good's stake on Bear Creek was a 358-acre parcel of land where he built a house and began raising cattle (Brice 1984: 7). It is not known what type of shelter Jones first built but it was probably a rudimentary shelter of some sort. He may have built the one-room stone building that later was used as a creamery as a first or early home for his family. Ironically this early house survives while a larger, later one has been demolished. The early stone building has been used as a creamery throughout recorded memory. It is a small, rectangular, one-room building that once had two-floor troughs to hold spring water and dairy products. Spring water was channeled into the building and the basins to chill cream and butter.

Water was of paramount importance. Bear Creek ran through his property only a short distance down the hill from his homesite and, while it was a good source of water for his cattle, the trees along its banks provided good cover for Indians who still camped along its banks. Jones probably chose his homesite on the high side of the hill to have a clear view of the surrounding area and to be above the Bear Creek flood plain. Unlike other settlers who were forced to build closer to running water, Jones had the advantage of a reliable spring that emerged just above his homesite. About 60 feet below the spring he built a large, bell-shaped cistern to capture the spring water as it flowed downhill.

The Good family is listed in the 1860 census of Hays County: I.G. Good age 44 born GA, Melissa Good age 48, born SC, William Good age 18 born Texas, Isham J. Good age 16, born Texas, Jhn Allen Good, age 10, born Texas. Hays County Marriage Book 1848-1870, page 150: Isham J. Good and Angie Carpenter Jan. 17, 1866, and page 157, William J. Good and Mary Reading, January 16, 1866. Besides their own four children, Melissa Good is recorded as having raised seven orphans whose parents were killed by Indians (Walter Fowler Good, Texas War for Independence Veterans' Grave Marker Program files). At least eight men, most of the sons of the community founders, enlisted in the Confederate army or cavalry during the Civil War. Good's son William was among them.

Good died on December 18, 1866, at the age of 53. He was buried on his ranch near Bear Creek. A low stone wall surrounds the grave which is marked by a Texas historical marker for his participation in the Texas War for Independence. Melissa Good died on November 4, 1870, and is buried in a family cemetery on land that she owned near Buda, Texas (Irma G. Doffing, Texas War for Independence Veterans' Grave Marker Program files).

Members of the family remained on the property and continued to ranch and raise dairy cattle for several generations. In the 1960s and 1970s, the property was owned by L. M. Brizendine of Austin, Texas (Parmelee letter, Texas Historical Commission Marker files). The land was subdivided and Lynn Osler and Marvin Williams purchased the 8.5-acre parcel containing the house site with the cistern, creamery, gravesite, horse barn, and vestiges of an old road. The cistern and creamery are exceptional historic properties in outstanding condition that well-represent the pioneer history of Hays County. The extant historic resources affiliated with the Isham Good farmstead retain the integrity of location, design, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association. The gravesite is nominated as an integral part of the farmstead, rather than for its association with good. The district is nominated to the National Register of Historic Places for its contributions to our understanding of the settlement and exploration of Hays County and under Criterion C for Architecture.