This page contains Research Notes only.

Timeline

date event
1682 William Cloude came to English Colonies with Wm. Penn.
1776 Colonies revolted against England. Declaration of Independence.
1783 Technical end of Revolution.
1815 End of war of 1812. Economic boom follows.
1819 America's first depression. Inflation, rise in property prices, etc.
1820 Spain opened land to Catholic immigrants for settlement in Coahuila Texas.
1820 Moses Austin is the first Empresario to take advantage of the Spanish land offer.
1821 Moses Austin died. His son, Stephen F. Austin, took over administration of the Austin Colony.
1831 John Wurts Cloud, Episcopal minister, arrived in Austin Colony and settled in Brazoria.
1832 Rev. J. W. Kenney came to Texas with his family in 1832. In 1834, he held the first Methodist Camp meeting in Austin's Colony on Caney Creek near his Austin home. By 1835, a second Church Camp meeting was held here and at this time a Methodist Conference was organized, supported by William B. Travis. [1]
1837 Jeremiah Cloud & McDades travel overland from Alabama to Austin Colony, Texas; the women & children travel by boat & train, possibly encountering bad weather.
1837 Oct. 4 – Weather: a hurricane reached Brownsville and curved up the coastline over Galveston, blowing away all homes and wrecking most boats along the coastline. [2]
1838 The second president of Texas, Mirabeau B. Lamar, took over a bankrupt and lawless country. Driven by a vision of future greatness, Lamar ruthlessly drove the Cherokee from Texas, waged war with the Comanche, and undertook a disastrous expedition to open a trade route to Santa Fe. He also founded a new capital in Austin and laid the foundation that would one day create schools, colleges, and world-famous universities. [3]
1840 James Cloud, s/o Jeremiah Cloud, moved to Austin Co. Texas, going overland, by horseback. Other men in the Mt. Meigs neighborhood, went at the same time. Later, Jennie took their children and slaves by boat from Montgomery to New Orleans, and thence to Hempstead, which at that time was in Austin Co. now Waller Co.
In the administration of her father's estate, 1840, in Alabama, is the statement that Jennie and husband, James Cloud, were non-residents, thus proving that they had moved from Alabama to Texas, prior to that date.
1842 February – March; Gen. Rafael Vasquez invaded Texas and captured San Antonio May 5, 1842, six years after the fall of the Alamo. James M. Cloud, s/o Jeremiah Cloud, joined a unit to repel Vasquez' army. [4]
1842 Sept. – Weather: Galveston hit by hurricane again. [5]
1845 March 1 – Texas annexed to the United States. Mexico broke diplomatic relations with the United States and contested the boundaries of Texas.
1845 December 29 – Texas becomes 28th state.
1850's Weather: 3 hurricanes, 1 tropical storm. [6]
1850 Jeremiah Cloud's oldest son, William died in Alabama. [7]
1855 H.G.W. Cloud, s/o Jeremiah Cloud, listed as assessor of Austin county. [8]  He was blind at the time.
1856 December 29 – Hempstead founded. Located in the Austin Colony, east of the Brazos River.
1858 June 29 – the Houston and Texas Central was extended to Hempstead and it became a distribution center between the Texas interior and the Gulf Coast. Later that year its importance as a transportation center increased with construction of the Washington County Railroad from Hempstead to Brenham[9]
1858-1860 Andrew Jackson "A.J." Cloud, Jeremiah Cloud's son, believed to have been ambushed and killed by a nephew.
1860 June 14, census, Austin Cty, Hempstead, HH-2; B.B. Lee enumerated in next household to H.G.W. Cloud, B.B. Lee 40 KY, wife A.M. Lee 37 KY
Burwell B. Lee (1818-1868)
1860's Weather: 4 hurricanes, 1 tropical storm. [10]
1861 March 4, Abraham Lincoln elected president.
1860 Nov. 6 – Lincoln elected Republican president.
1861 February – Texas seceded from the Union and joined the Civil War – attempted a peaceful secession. Governor Sam Houston refused to recognize the secession convention, removed from office and replaced by Edward Clark. [11] [12]
1861 March 4 – Lincoln took office as president.
1861 March 14, Jeremiah Cloud died. [13] Probate of his estate began August, 1861; executors were his widow and youngest son, F.M. Cloud. [14]
1862 April 12, after demanding the Union troops surrender Fort Sumpter, the Confederacy fired the first shots of the Civil War.
1862 April, Jos. H. Farr wounded during retreat of Gen. Sibley's 5th Texas Cavalry campaign in New Mexico. Shot in both arms, both broken. Awarded 1,280 acres 1881 confederate scrip, witnesses C.C. Groce; A.J. McDade.
1862 May 30, Confederate Brig. Gen. P. 0. Hebert put Texas under martial law. He appointed a number of provost marshals, whose powers were almost unlimited and who were responsible only to him. In October, Jefferson Davis removed him due to his harsh measures. [15]
1862 Brig. Gen. J. Bankhead Magruder succeeded General Hebert, and re-initiated martial law.
1862 Alexander J. Hamilton appointed by president Abraham Lincoln as brigadier general of volunteers and appointed military governor of Texas. A Republican, he opposed secession and, during Reconstruction, was appointed governor of Texas where he tried to limit officeholders to former Unionists. [16]
1863 Jan. 1 – the Emancipation Proclamation.
1863 Brig. Gen. J. Bankhead Magruder appointed J. W. McDade Provost Marshal of Austin county.
1865 April 9; General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Confederate troops to the Union's Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. [17]
1865 April 26; Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's Army of Tennessee surrendered. [18]
1865 May 4; Confederate Lt. Gen. Richard Taylor surrendered. [19]
1865 May 12; The final land battle of the Civil War – the Battle of Palmito Ranch near Brownsville, TX. [20]
1865 May 26; Lt. Gen. E. Kirby Smith surrendered at Galveston. [21]
1865 June 19; "Juneteenth" – Texas forced to acknowledge the freedom of the slaves. [22] General Order No. 3 was posted in towns and communicated to the slaves by slaveholders. Texas occupied by federal troops and Reconstruction began. Residents had to swear allegiance to the Union, slaveholders had to release their slaves. [23]
1865-1866 Former Confederates emigrate to Texas, which was less affected by the War, bringing their slaves with them. Unrest by formerly enslaved people, with violence toward the freedmen. [24]
1865-1870 Anger at the war's outcome simmered in Reconstruction-era Texas. Freedmen became the primary targets of widespread violence that followed the war's end. Former Confederate states enacted legislation restricting the rights of African Americans. [25]
1866 July, Alex Cloud elected as coroner of Austin county and J. W. McDade elected to the Texas state senate.
1867

The Bankruptcy Act of 1867 followed the financial crisis of 1857. It provided for both voluntary and involuntary bankruptcy cases.
The 1867 Act was criticized for small dividends to creditors, high expenses for administering the bankruptcy case, delays, and only about one-third of debtors being granted a discharge due to the many exceptions to discharge. The 1867 Act was repealed in 1878. [26]

The federal Bankruptcy Act of 1867 proved to be a godsend to southern debtors and creditors alike. Southern whites flooded the federal courts in the South seeking to take advantage of the law's provisions. ... Southern debtors benefited from the bankruptcy act in several ways. The law exempted from execution for debt a substantial amount of property (often based on the value thereof instead of acreage), reaffirmed state laws permitting planters to transfer property into their wives' names to shield it from attachment, made it easier for debtors to initiate voluntary bankruptcy proceedings, and permitted (unlike earlier statutes) partnerships and corporations to file for bankruptcy. In addition, federal district courts tended to favor local interests, and the judges thereof were less susceptible than state judges to the effects of oscillating party fortunes in state politics. [27] [28]
1867 (think this should be 1876) – Thomas Sewell McDade elected sheriff of Waller county, TX. He appealed to the black vote to win the election at probably the rawest period after the civil war and stirred up anger among many of the citizens.
1867 Oct. 3, – Weather: Hurricane from mouth of Rio Grande to Galveston. [29]
1867 Oct. 13, – James Wilkins McDade died; brother to sheriff Thomas Sewell McDade.
1868 February, – death of John Clark Cloud, Jeremiah Cloud's son. He was buried in a field across the creek from Sandy Creek Cemetery in Milano, Milam cty, TX.
1868 May 2, – Mr. B.B. Lee was shot and killed by Mr. Joseph Farr, in the saloon kept by Mr. G.H. Wheeler at Hempstead. Farr left, and has not been arrested.
1868 May 31, – Dewitt C. Fort killed by Springfield (robably William Springfield, Dick Springfield's older half brother who would have been 24 at the time).
1868 July 8, – J. M. and H.G.W. Cloud applied for bankruptcy.
1868 July 8; R. F. Pace advertised a new ferry between Bellville, Buckhorn & Hempstead. [30]
1868 July 28, – H.G.W. Cloud declared bankruptcy.
1868 October, – T.S. McDade named administrator if his brother, J.W. McDade's, estate.
1868 December, – Life insurance payout for J.W. McDade & B.B. Lee.
1868 December 25, – Elijah Bell shot and killed Alfred Kirby.
1870's Weather: 2 hurricanes, 4 tropical storms. [31]
1870 March – Texas readmitted to the Union. [32]
1870 April – Stephen Allchin's parents killed – murder/suicide in Excambia cty, Florida.
1872 The Radicals (Republicans) quarrelled among themselves, with two factions developing, returning some Democrats to Austin County offices (Waller County wasn't formed until the next year). These included Col. B.F. Elliott, mayor and N. Cloud, marshal, (p. 456) – The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 59, July 1955 – April, 1956. Probably H.G.W. Cloud's son Noah Cloud.
1873 April – Waller County formed with Hempstead as county seat in May.
1876 Texas adopts constitution of 1876. [33]
1876 October 7 – Jos. Farr (Democrat) elected city marshall of Hempstead.
1877 January – Joe Farr purchased Waller County Courier from bro-in-law Chas. W. Newnam.
1878 January – murder of Tom Bell.
1879 May 4 – John Steele killed by Col. Jared Kirby.
1879 June 1 – Thomas Loggins Killed by Daniel Morris.
1879 July 9 – Reuben Morris killed by Reuben Loggins, brother of Dan Morris killed last May by Reuben Morris' brother Dan Morris. [34]
1879 August 3 – Richard Booth, ex-county attorney shot and killed by R.T. Springfield.
1880's Weather: 9 hurricanes, 9 tropical storms. [35]
1880's Republican ticket – T.S. McDade for sheriff; Lewis McDade for district clerk; J.W.J. Cloud for justice of the peace.
1880 July 1 – Thomas Ray killed by George Lawrence.
1880 November 6, Town marshal John Howell Adams shot by Peter Moore.
1881 September 20, Hiram McGar killed by Willis Johnson.
1881 September 22, Possible final settlement to estate of Jeremiah Cloud: Citation to F. M. Cloud, administrator, to appear at Austin County court, Bellville, TX, 20 years after it began. [36]
1882 A Republican victory and the theft and destruction of a ballot box by armed, masked men.
1882 November 18 – Tom Taylor killed by George Lawrence.
1883 Feb. 23 – A.C. Tomey Killed by Lum Campbell.
1884 August 25 – Republican nominated Joe Blasingame, sheriff; j. H. Farr, clerk; L.W. Groce, treasurer; J.W.J. Cloud, J.P.
1884 sheriff McDade re-elected; some citizens were so incensed they wrote letters to the editor.
1886 May 5, – Joseph H. Farr, editor of the Hempstead Courier, shot in the back by his brother-in-law and justice of the peace, J.W.J. Cloud
1886 August 20, – On "Black Friday," August 20, 1886, a terrible hurricane wiped out the major port city of Indianola.
1886 September, – J.W.J. Cloud died of T.B.
1887 February 15, – The Advance Guard started by E. P. Alsbury.[37] [38]
1887 Nov. 1, – Francis Marion "F.M." Cloud, J.W.J. Cloud's uncle and youngest son of Jeremiah & Elizabeth Cloud, was shot and killed by a jealous husband, Stonewall Jackson Kendrick. F.M. Cloud was separated from his wife at the time. S.J. Kendrick was acquitted for the murder but was later tried for bigamy.
1888 April 6, – sheriff McDade's son-in-law, Dick Chambers, was offended about newspaper articles critical of sheriff McDade and threatened to kill the author. Steve Allchin, a drayman (wagon driver), said he would be happy to write the article. Chambers subsequently shot Allchin, who got up off the ground and killed Chambers.
1888 May 4, – N.B. Farr, half brother of Jos. Farr, is shot and killed by James Carroll.
1888 May 12, – In retribution for the killing of Dick Chambers, sheriff McDade's nephew, Jack McDade, and a friend, Dick Springfield, hid in an alley until Stephen Allchin rode by, whereupon they ambushed him, shooting him multiple times with a pistol and shotgun. Allchin was known to always carry a 30-caliber carbine across his lap as he rode, but the ambush caught him off guard and he didn't have a chance to raise his rifle.
1888 July 9, – James Carroll, who killed N.B. Farr, was shot at the Waller station by "an Englishman" named Joe Driscoll. I can find no record of any arrest or trial of Driscoll.
1888 July 29, – Nominations: Jno Pinckney, attorney; Joe Blassingame, sheriff.
1888 Aug. 2, – W. M. Felker and John F. Cole exchanged gunfire in dispute over billiards.
1888 Sept. 2, – Republican nominees: Thos. S. McDade, sheriff; Lewis W. McDade, public weigher. On an opposing Republican Ticket – people's ticket – E.P. Alsbury, sheriff; Jno Pinckney, cty attorney..
1888 Sept. 6, – Sheriff McDade Resigned as Sheriff and Withdraws from the Race.
1888 Oct. 13, – Lewis McDade, a prominent black republican politician, was murdered just before the November election. Born ca 1857 Texas (1880 census Hempstead). (A Lewis McDade married Bertie Groce 1882 somewhere in Texas.)
1888 Nov. 26, – Ex-Sheriff Thomas Sewell McDade was murdered as he stepped outside his home to get water for a sick child.
1888 Nov. 27, – Joseph Blasingame, Jr. was arrested and charged with the murder. (His father had served as sheriff of neighboring Austin county 1872-1873 and was active in Waller county politics.)
1889 February – Jack McDade given 8 years for murder of Stephen Allchin.
1889 Oct. 6 – Jos. Blassingame acquitted of murder charge.
1889 Dec. 19 – Dick Springfield given 25 years for murder of Stephen Allchin.
1890's Weather: 3 hurricanes, 3 tropical storm. [39]
1895 Aug. 5, – Harry Kelly murderd by John Pinchback.
1897 June 3, – H.G.W. Cloud died in Groesbeck, Texas, about 120 miles north of Hempstead. He had moved there to live with his daughter.
1903 January 4 – T. Binford shot and killed Dr. Joseph Joel "J.J." Arendale.[40].
1904 October 5 – Waller county deputy sheriff Rivers McDade killed Clifton Vernon "C.V." Floyd at Hallettsville for violating his sister.
1905 March 25 – Will Ford shot and killed Gus Alexander and was then killed by a tenant.  Conflicting reports say he was killed either Ed Justus or Ed Miller.
1905 April 24 – Four men killed inside the Waller county courthouse at a Waller County Prohibition League meeting.
1906 March 31 – Joseph D. Wood killed in a gun melee at Waller, he was the husband of Martha Boulware daughter of Musco Boulware.[41]
1946 May 23 – Hempstead celebrated Six-Shooter Junction Day

Files in this folder

Resources:

Footnotes

  1. Kenney , Town Square Publications Rev. J. W. Kenney

    https://townsquarepublications.com/where-is-the-kenney-store.

  2. Hurricanes Dunn, Roy Sylvan, Handbook of Texas Online.

    https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/hurricanes.

  3. Bullock Museum

    https://www.thestoryoftexas.com/discover/campfire-stories/frontier-folk.

  4. Mexican Invasions of 1842 Haynes, Sam W, Handbook of Texas Online

    https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/mexican-invasions-of-1842.

  5. Dunn, Handbook of Texas Online.
  6. Texas Hurricane History David Roth, National Weather Service, Camp Springs, MD

    https://www.weather.gov/media/lch/events/txhurricanehistory.pdf.

  7. Cloud, Tom William Cloud B. Circa 1801 Georgia, USA D. Bef 1850 Alabama, USA. MyKindred.com Family Histories.

    https://mykindred.com/cloud/TX/getperson.php?personID=I10512&tree=mykindred01.

  8. H. G. W. Cloud, Assessor Austin County. State Gazette, (Austin, TX), Vol. 7, No. 13, Ed. 1, Saturday, November 17, 1855, p. 4, col 5. University Of North Texas Libraries, The Portal To Texas History transcription

    https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth81214/m1/4/zoom/?resolution=1&lat=4783&lon=4154.

  9. Hempstead, Texas Christian, Carole E, Handbook of Texas Online.

    https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hgh07.

  10. Roth, Natl. Weather Svc.
  11. Civil War Ralph A. Wooster, rev. Brett J. Derbes, Handbook of Texas Online

    https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/civil-war.

  12. Civil War and Reconstruction. texasourtexas.texaspbs.org

    https://texasourtexas.texaspbs.org/the-eras-of-texas/civil-war-reconstruction.

  13. Cloud, Tom Jeremiah "Jerry" Cloud b. Circa 1784 Twiggs County, Georgia, USA d. Mar 14, 1861 Austin County, Texas. MyKindred.com Family Histories.

    https://mykindred.com/cloud/TX/getperson.php?personID=I1&tree=mykindred01.

  14. Cloud, Tom Obituary & Probate of Jeremiah Cloud, Austin County, TX.. MyKindred.com Family Histories.

    https://mykindred.com/cloud/TX/Jer-Probate.php.

  15. Texas During The Civil War Wortham Louis J. Texas Military Forces Museum

    https://www.texasmilitaryforcesmuseum.org/wortham/4345.htm.

  16. Andrew Jackson Hamilton Marten, James A, Handbook of Texas Online

    https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/hamilton-andrew-jackson.

  17. Pruitt, Sarah. Why the Civil War Actually Ended 16 Months After Lee Surrendered, history.com

    https://www.history.com/news/why-the-civil-war-actually-ended-16-months-after-lee-surrendered.

  18. Pruitt, Sarah. Why the Civil War Actually Ended 16 Months After Lee Surrendered, (ibid) history.com

    https://www.history.com/news/why-the-civil-war-actually-ended-16-months-after-lee-surrendered.

  19. Pruitt, Sarah. Why the Civil War Actually Ended 16 Months After Lee Surrendered, (ibid) history.com

    https://www.history.com/news/why-the-civil-war-actually-ended-16-months-after-lee-surrendered.

  20. Pruitt, Sarah. Why the Civil War Actually Ended 16 Months After Lee Surrendered, (ibid) history.com

    https://www.history.com/news/why-the-civil-war-actually-ended-16-months-after-lee-surrendered.

  21. Pruitt, Sarah. Why the Civil War Actually Ended 16 Months After Lee Surrendered, (ibid) history.com

    https://www.history.com/news/why-the-civil-war-actually-ended-16-months-after-lee-surrendered.

  22. Juneteenth. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juneteenth.

  23. Civil War and Reconstruction. (ibid) texasourtexas.texaspbs.org

    https://texasourtexas.texaspbs.org/the-eras-of-texas/civil-war-reconstruction.

  24. Pruitt, Sarah. Why the Civil War Actually Ended 16 Months After Lee Surrendered, (ibid) history.com

    https://www.history.com/news/why-the-civil-war-actually-ended-16-months-after-lee-surrendered.

  25. Civil War and Reconstruction. (ibid) texasourtexas.texaspbs.org

    https://texasourtexas.texaspbs.org/the-eras-of-texas/civil-war-reconstruction.

  26. A Relatively Short History of the Bankruptcy Laws in the United States 2022 NCBJ Conference – Orlando, FL

    https://ncbjmeeting.org/2019blog/2019/02/27/a-relatively-short-history-of-the-bankruptcy-laws-in-the-united-states.

  27. The Reconstruction of Southern Debtors: Bankruptcy After the Civil War Thompson, Elizabeth Lee. University of Georgia Press

    https://ugapress.org/book/9780820326245/the-reconstruction-of-southern-debtors.

  28. The Reconstruction of Southern Debtors: Bankruptcy After the Civil War Thompson, Elizabeth Lee. Project MUSE

    https://muse.jhu.edu/article/219525/pdf.

  29. Dunn, (ibid) Handbook of Texas Online.
  30. Old Adam Killed The Texas Countryman, (Hempstead, TX), Wednesday, July 8, 1868, p. 3, col. 2. University Of North Texas Libraries, The Portal To Texas History transcription

    https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth180301/m1/3/zoom/?resolution=1&lat=6814&lon=1450.

  31. (ibid) Roth, Natl. Weather Svc.
  32. Civil War and Reconstruction. (ibid) texasourtexas.texaspbs.org

    https://texasourtexas.texaspbs.org/the-eras-of-texas/civil-war-reconstruction.

  33. Civil War and Reconstruction. (ibid) texasourtexas.texaspbs.org

    https://texasourtexas.texaspbs.org/the-eras-of-texas/civil-war-reconstruction.

  34. murder of Reuben Morris. Cases Argued and Adjudged in the Court of Appeals of the State of Texas During the Latter Part of the Galveston Term, 1880 and the Early Part of the Austin Term, 1880: Volume 8, book, 1880

    https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1385236/m1/441/zoom/?q=%20%22marshal%22%20%22hempstead%22%20date:1880-1880&resolution=1.5&lat=3745.250000000001&lon=792.9999999999999.

  35. (ibid) Roth, Natl. Weather Svc.
  36. Cloud, Tom Obituary & Probate of Jeremiah Cloud, Austin County, TX.. (ibid) MyKindred.com Family Histories.

    https://mykindred.com/cloud/TX/Jer-Probate.php.

  37. The Advance Guard. Galveston Daily News, Thursday, February 3, 1887, p. 7, col. 6. University Of North Texas Libraries, The Portal To Texas History transcription

    https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth464190/m1/7/zoom/?resolution=1&lat=2707&lon=3933.

  38. The Hempstead Advance Guard Reports ... Its First Birthday. The Galveston Daily News, (Galveston, Tex.), Vol. 46, No. 295, Ed. 1 Wednesday, February 15, 1888 Page: 4 of 8, University Of North Texas Libraries, The Portal To Texas History transcription

    https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth466460/m1/4/zoom/?resolution=1&lat=3842&lon=2725.

  39. (ibid) Roth, Natl. Weather Svc.
  40. A Waller Killing The Austin Statesman. (Austin, TX.), January 5, 1903, p. 1, col. 3. University Of North Texas Libraries, The Portal To Texas History transcription

    https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1454571/m1/1/zoom/?resolution=0.5&lat=1632&lon=1567.

  41. Waller Tragedy The Daily Express. (San Antonio, TX.)), Monday, April 2, 1906, p. 6, col. 7. University Of North Texas Libraries, The Portal To Texas History transcription

    https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth441293/m1/6/zoom/?resolution=1&lat=3526&lon=4498.

Newspaper articles may be read at Timeline of News Reports.