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In 1835, 26-year-old attorney William Barret “Buck” Travis (1809-1836) finalized application for his one and only Mexican land grant of more than 4,000 acres (one league of land). Attracted to available and affordable land, Travis left behind his pregnant wife and son in Alabama, and moved to Texas in 1831. As a lieutenant colonel in the Texas army, Travis was heavily involved in the beginnings of the Texas Revolution, perishing at the Alamo. Between April 1835 and his death in March 1836, William B. Travis had little time to develop his land. That was left to his two young children, Charles Edward (1829-1860) and Susan Isabella (1831-1868).
Charles Travis recognized the economic potential of the cypress trees on the property for making shingles and decided to divide the league between himself and his sister. In 1853, Charles bought Susan’s upper half and then sold his lower half in 1854 to Englishman John Charles Johnson (1821-1864) for a selling price of 200,000 shingles. Johnson then sold some of his land to his brothers-in-law, John M. Butler and Mathias Speed. Charles sold the upper half to Morgan C. Hamilton in 1854.
As the land was subdivided, more settlers moved to the Onion Creek area. Several landowners left to fight in the Civil War, including John Johnson, Mathias Speed, Elijah Rawls and his son, Richard Rawls. After the war, some returned, while others sold their holdings. Tennessee-born John Jacks (1837-1882) moved to a home overlooking Onion Creek in the late 1870s. Jacks was involved in the unsuccessful 1881 request to move the Hays County seat to a more central location on open land in the Travis League. A number of settlers of William B. Travis’ League went on to develop the area and contribute to its settlement, establishing businesses, schools and cemeteries.
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