Littlejohn Jeff - Huntsville

This sculpture by Monica Taylor and Lawrence Zink, entitled The Source , depicts the Bidai Indians, the first modern people to inhabit the Huntsville area. The Bidai lived in small villages and subsisted on a diet of fish, deer, and maize. During the year, they traded with other Native American groups and arriving settlers from the East. By the 19th century, the Bidai were engulfed by a wave of American migrants. (Courtesy the authors collection.)

This map shows the original land grants that were bestowed on settlers in the Walker County area. Of particular significance is the grant given to Pleasant Gray, the founder of Huntsville. He and his wife, Hannah, received one league of land (4,428 acres) from the State of Coahuila and Texas on July 12, 1835. Gray quickly established a trading post on his new land and named his settlement Huntsville after his former home in Alabama. When the Republic of Texas won its independence from Mexico in 1836, Huntsville sat within the boundaries of Montgomery County. Ten years later, however, after Texas had been annexed by the United States, Huntsville was selected as the seat of the newly formed Walker County. (Courtesy Texas General Land Office, Austin.)

In the two years between 1842 and 1844, British scientist and ethnographer William Bollaert traveled through Texas to prepare a report for the British Admiralty. This early sketch of Huntsville (1843) comes from his famous work of the period, entitled William Bollaerts Texas . (Courtesy Huntsville Arts Commission.)

In November 1846, Pleasant and Hannah Gray affixed their signatures to a deed granting the people of Walker County ownership of the Huntsville public square for 1. The square would serve as the location for the countys first courthouse. Two years after signing this deed, Pleasant Gray took part in the California Gold Rush, and he died en route to the West Coast in 1849. (Courtesy Walker County Clerks Office.)

Michael Gray (right) was the oldest son of Pleasant and Hannah Gray. He was born in 1829 and died in California. John A. W. Gray (left) was born a year after his older brother. He died in Terrell, Texas, in 1874. (Courtesy Walker County Historical Commission.)

A friend and associate of Nicholas Adolphus Sterne (a merchant who helped finance the Texas Revolution), Alexander McDonald built one of the first brick buildings in Huntsville in 1843. This structure served as a store and early meeting place for the Masons of Forrest Lodge, one of the first Masonic groups in Texas. It sat on the corner of Spring and Main Streets, now Twelfth Street and University Avenue. (Courtesy Huntsville Arts Commission.)

This early map of Huntsville highlights the significant sites established in the mid-19th century. Initially designed by Johnnie Jo Dickenson, the map has been updated by James Patton and Jeff Littlejohn to accord with early settlers recollections. (Courtesy Walker County Historical Commission.)

A native of South Carolina, Thomas Gibbs (18121872) arrived in Huntsville in 1841 and soon established a mercantile business with partner Gardner Coffin. When Coffin died in 1844, Gibbs asked his brother Sandford to join him in business. On January 26, 1847, the two men formed a new partnership, T. and S. Gibbs, which remains the oldest continually operating business in Texas on its original site and under its original ownership. (Courtesy Walker County Historical Commission.)

Sandford St. John Gibbs (18191886) arrived in Huntsville in 1846 and joined his brother Thomas in business the following year. The two men operated a prosperous mercantile store, purchased land and other investments, and oversaw a private banking house. After Sandfords first wife, Mary Wilmuth Gary, died in 1863, he lived three years as a widower. Then, in 1866, he married Sarah Elizabeth Smith (18441918), and the couple had six children. Pictured below are Sandford and his second wife, Sarah. (Courtesy Walker County Historical Commission.)