Freestone County, Texas
Reflections


FREESTONE PAST/PRESENT 
By J. R.(Sonny) SESSIONS

MUSEUM'S CHURCH BELL

The Freestone Co. Museum observing its 40th years since started in 1967.  It is 
now located in the third Jail building built about 1885 and used until the
fourth, which was located on the Courthouse Square built in 1911 and used until
1974.  There are many early things to been here, with the planned expansion 
from a gracious local grant there should be much more.  On the outside grounds
there are more displays with two early Freestone Co. log houses, an early 
church building, and an old church bell with interesting history.

Didn't realize until recently how much the Trinity River played in the early
development and settlement of Freestone and the other counties joining it.  
Bill Young's informative research and articles in the Corsicana paper
have brought much out.  He writes about the early settlements that didn't
become permanent and the riverboats, sternwheelers, barges, and steam boats
that carried passengers and supplies.

The old bell displayed at the Butler Church and bought when part of the 
property was condemned and sold with the expansion of US 84 in the early 1960's.
It was bought by Clay and Mildred Burkhart who donated it to the museum.  Mrs.
Burkhart's grandfather Rev. J. W. Richardson once was pastor here as was Rev. G.
W. Baines great grandfather of President L.  B. Johnon.

At the dedication the following information was presented:

"The old bell was on the steamboat S. A. Ruthven which plied the Trinity River
until it sank in 1873 at Parker's Bluff north of Palestine.  In 1868 the 
Ruthven was the largest sternwheeler on the Trinity.  On a trip to Galveston
that year, it carried 800 bales of cotton, 50 bales of hides and 15 passengers,
including Col. W. H. Tucker, for whom the community of Tucker near Palestine
is named.  The Ruthven navigated the Trinity form Galveston to Magnolia, and
Parkers Bluff.  The boat anchor, when recovered from the Trinity, was given to
the city of Palestine and was marked in 1926.  It is now on the lawn of the 
Howard House Museum in Palestine.

Later the bell was recovered and used by the Butler Church until the church
building was razed in 1963.  The Burkharts purchased the bell after the fire.
The pilot of the steamboat S. A. Ruthven was Washington G. Rhodes.  His great-
great-grandson attended the ceremony for the dedication of the museum and bell
is Forrest Bradberry Jr. of Palestine, who is stationed in Alabama with the
Air Force.  Some years ago the old Church minute books and records still existed
and in the possession of the Edwards family in Butler.

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Grandpa's Report

Guess someone needed the small gates into Woodland Cemetery, two gone.

...
Downtown Streetman sporting a new cafe located next to the Post Office, this
the first in many years, not even one on big road anymore. "The Little Burger
Shack" operated by area residents Otto & Tasha Koog.
...