July 2003 Meeting

Speaker: Jean M. Heide
Topic: The History of Selma
and The Harrison & McCullough Stage Stop

While researching for a historical marker for the Geier and Schmid farm and cemetery belonging to her great, great grandfather's family in Selma, Texas, Jean Heide uncovered the history of John S. Harrison and William McCulloch and their little limecrete building that sat hidden in a grove of trees for 150 years. The Harrison & (Brown) McCulloch Stage Stop served as an important link in the stage road/Postal Star Route No. 6285 that ran along the El Camino Real from Austin to San Antonio and down to Port Lavaca in the early days of the Republic. This little building was declared a state archeological landmark in October of 2000 and received a one million dollar TEA-21 grant from the Texas Department of Transportation in February 2002 with reconstruction to begin in Fall of 2004. This little building will serve as one of Texas' newest transportation museums giving the citizens of Texas an opportunity to learn the important role it played in the days of transporting mail and immigrants from Indianola to Central Texas during the days of the Republic of Texas.

By profession, Jean Heide is a Senior Legal Secretary working in the litigation area of the Employment and Labor Department of the law firm of Holland & Knight LLP in San Antonio, Texas. Jean's passion is genealogy and early Texas history. She was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas and loves her hometown and its history. She has been married 34 years to Claus D. Heide and is the mother of two children and a soon-to-be-first-time grandmother. She has been a member of the San Antonio Beethoven Damenchor for over 25 years serving on various committees and as Parliamentarian. Jean served for three years (1999 - 2002) on the City of Selma Historical Preservation Committee as its Historian. Jean also took a very active part in the Heritage Day Committee that sponsored Selma's annual heritage celebration. She has been a guest speaker for the Comal County Genealogical Society; The Greater Randolph Genealogical Society; the Leon Valley Historical Society and the Somerset Historical Society. Jean has served as the President of the Selma Historical Foundation since its inception. The 3-year-old Foundation is currently made up of 15 families --most of which are direct descendants of the original settlers of Selma. The Foundation has actively participated in Selma's Heritage Day every year displaying photo albums and written history of Selma and its early families, cemeteries, historic houses and its Harrison & (Brown) McCulloch Stage Stop.

 

Sources:

Gammel's Laws at Google.com website

Viktor Bracht - Texas in 1848

TxDot’s - A Texas Legacy The Old San Antonio Road and the Camino Reales,
A Tricentennial History, 1691 – 1991.

Robert Thonhoff’s – San Antonio Stage Lines 1847 – 1881

Brownson Malsch’s – Indianola The Mother of Western Texas

National Archive Records

Gonzales Inquirer Newspaper

Dr. Ferdinand Roemer – Roemer’s Texas 1845 – 1847

Maps from the Texas General Land Office

Dorman H. Winfrey & James M. Day – The Indian Papers of Texas and the Southwest

The Handbook of Texas Online

Travis and Bexar County Deed Records

Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States 1850-1851; 1851-1852.

Papers of Sidney R. Weisiger, Victoria Regional History Center

Sons of DeWitt Colony Texas website

San Antonio Ledger Newspaper

Philip L. Fradkin – Stagecoach, Wells Fargo and the American West

Family Papers of John S. Harrison & Martha Jane McCulloch

Oscar Haas - History of New Braunfels and Comal County, Texas 1844-1946

Victoria County Deed and Tax Records

Texas State Gazetteer and Business Directory 1892, Vol. IV

U. S. Postal Records/National Archives

Tour of Sebastopol in Seguin, Texas March 10, 2002

Draft Report - Archaeological Testing at the Selma Post Office and Stage
Stop, Northeastern Bexar County, Texas. Manuscript on file at the Center
for Archaeological Research, The University of Texas at San Antonio
(August 2000).