Early History of Hearne
Brazos River outside Hearne
The Spanish explorers named this river that cuts across Texas, Rio de los Brazos de Dios – The River of the Arms of God- after many thirsty weeks at sea. That river is now known as the Brazos.
Sterling Clack Robertson was from Tennessee. He established a settlement, Old Nashville, on the west bank of the Brazos River near the mouth of the Little River in 1834. He fought alongside Sam Houston at the Battle of San Jacinto and was a member of the First Senate of the Congress of the Republic of Texas. He died in 1842 in Robertson County and was buried in the State Cemetery at Austin, TX.
Old Nashville historical marker
Sterling Clack Robertson
The Hearne family was vast and many moved into Texas from Alabama. The first Hearne’s settled in Wheelock, TX, and then branched out looking for good farmland. Many settled in the area of the Brazos bottom lands acquiring much land. Getting crops to and receiving supplies from Houston was a problem keeping their teams on the road continuously. Christopher Columbus Hearne went to Houston and offered the promoters of the proposed Houston and Texas Central Railroad all of the land needed for the railroad right of way and a town site if they would give him a shipping station anywhere between Wheelock and Port Sullivan on the Brazos River. Railroad officials accepted and named the shipping station, Hearne, Texas.
In 1870, another railroad company began negotiations for land grants to enter this territory. Colonel Charles Lewis and other landowners deeded a tract of land of about seven hundred acres to the International & Great Northern Railroad Company under conditions that by January 1, 1872, the company would have trains operating over the deeded land. Both railroads combined their legal forces creating the Railroad Compromise. Next the two railroads formed the New York and Texas Land Company.
The New York and Texas Land Company donated ten acres for Norwood Cemetery and gave each church denomination two-corner lots of their choice to build.
George Washington Hearne’s (1828-1881) grave at the family plot in Norwood Cemetery.
The 1872 deadline was approaching rapidly. The IGN and citizens that had made the land grants were desperate. With the friendly assistance of Houston & Texas Central, the needed supplies were brought into Hearne. Construction on the IGN was pushed both ways from Hearne making it a central dividing point between Palestine and San Antonio. Hearne was now established and on two major railroads.
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