Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. No dust jacket as issued. 1958. First Edition. Flat signed by author Norman McCarver, Jr. on the ffep. History of Hearne, Texas. 369 pages (including a 234-page "Biographical Sketches" section of Hearne-related individuals & their families). Century Press of Texas, San Antonio, Texas.
Dimensions: 6.25"W x 9.25"H x 1.25"D
Hearne on the Brazos (a story about Hearne, Texas and the lives of the men and women of that town) was written by father and son team, Norman L. McCarver and N L McCarver Jr. in 1958. It tells the history of Hearne, Texas, a town that was founded by Christopher Columbus Hearne, who donated land to the Houston and Texas Central Railroad in exchange for a shipping station on the Brazos River. The book also includes biographies of prominent citizens, folklore, and anecdotes about Hearne and its surroundings.
Known as "The Crossroads Of Texas," Hearne is nestled at the crossroads of three major highways (TX6, U.S.79, and U.S.190) as well as two major Union Pacific Railroad lines. A railroaders' paradise, Missouri Pacific's former east-west line crosses Southern Pacific's former north-south line in Hearne.
Hearne is located on land that initially belonged to politician and soldier José Francisco Ruiz. By the 1840s, a tavern was located there and it also served as a general store and post office. The Hearne family - Ebenezer Hearne (1817-1869), Horatio Reardon Hearne (1818-1896), and Christopher Columbus Hearne (1814-1867) - moved in 1852 and 1854 to Robertson County, Texas where they acquired 10,000 acres. There they operated large cotton plantations.
"The original Hearnes acquired more land in this area than has ever been under one family ownership, and as they brought more and more acres under cultivation, the moving of crops and getting in supplies became a great handicap, keeping their teams on the road to and from Houston, Texas continuously. So, in 1855 when the rumor of an intended railroad from south to north Texas seemed substantial, Christopher Columbus Hearne went to Houston and told the promoters of the proposed railroad, the Houston and Texas Central Railroad, that if they would give him a shipping station anywhere between Wheelock and Port Sullivan on the Brazos River he would give them all of the land needed for the railroad right of way and a townsite. The railroad officials accepted Mr. Hearne's generous offer, stating to him that the shipping station would be located as requested and would be named Hearne, Texas. Thus the first seeds of the town of Hearne were sown."
Hearne on the Brazos, page 59, the trip of the steamboat Lizzie from Waco is mentioned. The Lizzie crossed the shoal at Port Sullivan in May 1876, going downstream to engage in the trade in the lower Brazos. According to this report, the Lizzie was the first steamboat to pass Port Sullivan 1858, the year the Fort Henry called at the town.
Several pages are devoted to the Hearne Prisoner Of War Camp. Camp Hearne was a prisoner-of-war camp during the Second World War. Commissioned in 1942, Camp Hearne was one of the few camps that housed prisoners from all three Axis powers during the conflict. After its decommissioning and piecemeal sell-off by the United States government, the site remained abandoned for 70 years.