This road trip was actually to drive to Dripping Springs for Chuck to purchase an RV generator. A close friend was meeting us at 'the creek' to pick up some pipe and our oldest son was coming out for a while. Rather than sit and wait, we drove up the road to check out a sign we see everytime we travel Hwy 21.
St. Mary's Colony: according to the Handbook of Texas Online "St. Mary's Colony, a black farming community, is located in the far western corner of Bastrop County, seventeen miles west of Bastrop on State Highway 21. The Doyle and Patton families founded the community shortly after emancipation when their former owners, George and Mary Doyle, gave them 2,000 acres of land. St. Mary's Colony was named by a preacher known as Meridan. At one time its population was more than 300. "
"After World War II many people moved from the colony to Austin for employment rather than endure the hard life of dry-land farming. The colony had dwindled to a few families when Willie Mae Wilson, a former resident, sought the help of United States representative J. J. Pickle to bring water lines to the area. In 1976 Pickle secured a $2.7 million grant enabling the Farmer's Home Administration and the Aqua Water Supply Corporation, a Bastrop-based water cooperative serving rural areas of the county, to do the project. Water lines began serving St. Mary's Colony in the early months of 1979, and former members of the community began to return and set up summer homes. The St. Mary's Community Center, formerly an old two-room schoolhouse, was renovated in 1979. "
We drove down the road marked St. Mary's Colony. It led to a large water tower at the end of the lane. There was also an abandoned building that we soon realized was a church. There were a few pews left behind and scattered papers and hymnals. From the papers and 2004 church bulletins we figured out this was the St. Mary's Baptist Church. The bulletin was for a 33rd church anniversary on April 4, 2004.
Just as we got back in the truck we noticed an entrance of some sort flanked by short, square columns made of brick with a hanging gate. It didn't take us long in wandering around to see that this was a cemetery. Some of the stones went back to 1933, but as we drove off we saw through the underbrush several other stones that looked older. It's quite overgrown and I'm sure a lot larger than we first thought. 
Additional sources online showed that the two-room school at St. Mary's was a Rosenwald School. The Rosenwald Schools played a significant role in the black communities of the South. Knowing a little about them, we drove back up the highway to check out the St. Mary's Colony Community Center. Yes, this is the old Rosenwald School. Built in 1925 - 26 it seems to have had some changes, though few, and probably new siding. Rosenwald school linkshttp://rosenwald.fisk.edu/http://www.rosenwaldplans.org/
As we got back on the highway to check out the next treasure, a Rosenwald school at Hopewell, we saw our son pull into the drive of 'the creek' so we went to meet him. Most of the afternoon was spent driving to Dripping Springs with Matt (son) and our friend, Carson accompanying us. We mentioned to Matt yet another sign we see every trip to 'the creek', Capitol of Texas Zoo. Knowing that the Austin zoo is on the west side of Austin, this peaked our interest. We jokingly commented that they probably had one really old camel and a llama. Matt had heard of it and said in 2008 there had been newspaper articles about a camel named Moses and it's side-kick, a shetland pony, being stolen from the that zoo. OK, so we'll just see a llama! We decided to check it out on Sunday morning.
That evening we drove to Elgin and had supper with Matt and Mel at a Mexican restaurant. A completely and wonderfully great time visiting with the kids. We so enjoy any time we have we our kids!
July 27
Sunday morning we drove to the middle of NOWHERE to the Capitol of Texas Zoo . I had finally, after a lot of searching on line, found they were open on Sundays and the admission was $8 per person. As we drove up to this very small building to the left and nothing (I mean nothing) but bare sand in front of us, I remarked that $8 each was going to be waaaay too much to pay to see this place, but we were there, let's see it anyway. Surprisingly there were a couple of families inside the fencing and we could see some of the kids feeding goats. OK, so they have a petting zoo.
We walked into the little building and found a young man that is the owner/founder of the place. He has a degree in zoology and had previously worked at 3 major zoos before deciding to start his own little zoo. He found property that he could afford in Bastrop county where the restrictions on this type of organization was not as strict as Austin or other areas. Thus, the Capitol of Texas Zoo in the middle of nowhere! Very likable man. Inside that building we looked at the prairie dogs (who would be getting a new colony built at the zoo soon) that had been rescued from some northern state when their colony was going to be bulldozed to build a subdivision/strip center, a rescued cockatoo, some pythons, snakes (the rattle snake decided to make his presence known, ugh) and some lizzards. Bought a cup of food and was about to enter the zoo. I did mention Moses the camel being stolen. But to our delight:
MOSES IS BACK! The owner said he was pretty sure he knew who had taken Moses and his friend, the bossy shetland pony, Coco, but could not prove it and no charges were filed. Several days after they disappeared, an elderly black man mile or so away (completely unaware that there was a zoo or a camel anywhere around), got up one morning and saw he had a camel and a pony in the pasture with his cows. He called the sheriff.
While Coco would not cooperate in the photo session, Moses was more than happy to oblige. He loves attention.
This place is carved out of 23 acres of cedar trees. One main path has been cleared with little cul d' sacs feeding off of it. The cedar trees that were cleared are used as fencing and posts in several of the animal cages. The place was a whole lot larger than first impressions. While it was already starting to get very hot, we were always in the shade but for the walk from the lower area to the upper area where the lion and white tiger were housed.
The zoo has had the white tiger since it was 10 months old. We happened to be there when the volunteer that takes care of the tiger and lion was there feeding and caring for them. The tiger was rubbing against the fence to get his quota of petting and loving for the day (by the volunteer, not us). The lion, named Bamboo, was breed to be in movies, but alas turned out to be a cowardly lion and not suitable for movies.
We also saw many species of parrots, ostrich, lemurs, tortoise, wild boar, pot-bellied pigs, goats, a huge mountain lion, bobcat, small deer, several things I couldn't even pronounce and were asleep in their dens and couldn't be seen, turtles, rabbits.......... well, the list just goes on and on.
The zoo is manned and operated by the owner and volunteers. We talked to a couple of the volunteers who were very nice and informative.
The zoo has public restrooms and has added a snack bar area with 6-8 picnic tables. They have programs they take to schools or organizations and you can rent the facilities for birthday parties, etc.
I managed to leave the house without my camera, so all
photos of this trip were taken on my cell phone camera. I won't make that mistake again! Photos are not the best, but you can see all photos of this trip here: Road Trip: St. Mary's Colony & Zoo
I enjoyed this read so much. I was looking for information on the St. Mary's Colony. Loved the commentary. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThis is awesome. Our ancestors are from St Mary's Colony and we are compiling data from there. My grandfather and mother was born there.
ReplyDeleteHi, I too am descended from an original family in St Mary's Colony. I would love to connect with you about the work you are doing to compile data on the community.
DeleteHi. I am very intrested in learning more about the history of the abandoned school/church. I know some friends that have been there and had some pretty unusual things happen to them..if you could, could you please help me? Thank you 😊
ReplyDeleteHi, I am a descendant of 2 of the formerly enslaved people who started the small farming community. My ancestors were enslaved by the Doyle's and their family lived in the community for generations after emancipation, my grandmother was born there and attended Saint Mary's School. I appreciate you getting a picture of the old church as it was no longer there when I visited in 2018 to attend our Doyle Family reunion. I have many relatives buried in the cemetery.
ReplyDelete