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The Torrey brothers of Connecticut and their childhood friend George Barnard, with President Sam Houston as a partner, contracted to build a series of trading posts along the Brazos River in 1843. Barnard's friendly manner made the Indians his friends, paving the way for more peaceful frontier settlement. In 1846, George ransomed a young girl, Juana Cavasos, from a group of Comanches at the post on Tehuacana Creek near Waco for $300. By 1847 she had married his brother Charles. In 1849, Charles and George established a post within this valley where Charles and Juana would live. In view of Comanche Peak in modern-day Hood County, the second post was four miles north of this site and near a Shawnee-Delaware village. Trading goods from a bulletproof "dog-run" log house, the brothers did an excellent business, and Juana's influence on the region equaled theirs. Two Anglo communities sprang up in the area: George's Creek and Fort Spunky. The government relocated the area's Indian population to Oklahoma in 1859; the need for a trading post dwindled. 1860 found Charles and Juana beginning a community on the Paluxy River, where he built a large stone gristmill. The town that grew around the mill was called Barnard's Mill, later renamed Glen Rose. (1998) |
