The 1867 Settlement: A Historic African American Community in Texas

The 1867 Settlement (also referred to as the Settlement), located twelve miles south of League City and in the Texas City Historic District in Galveston County, is a historically significant place as the only Reconstruction-era African American community established in the county. Located near Bell Drive, in west Texas City, this was a self-sufficient Black settlement established by former slaves after the Civil War. Unlike most freedmen of that time, the members of the community were landowners and settled an area that they called by various names, including “Our Settlement” and “Campbellville” for the Reverend Israel Campbell who began a church there in 1870.

The origins of the settlement can be traced to a Civil War containment camp in northern Galveston County where enslaved men were separated from their families and impressed for service to drive cattle for the Confederacy. Many of the future settlers worked as cowboys and ranch hands for George Washington Butler on Clear Creek (now League City). After the Civil War they drove his cattle on the Chisholm Trail to Abilene, Kansas. Cattle trailing provided a stable income for the post-Civil War destitute state of Texas.

After the announcement of emancipation in June 1865 (see JUNETEENTH) in Galveston, state Supreme Court judge William Jefferson Jones of Virginia Point set aside the only land in the county available to freedmen, who could procure testimonials from local businessmen declaring they had good morals and work ethics. By 1867 many of the former cowboys and ranch hands, with money earned by driving cattle, began to purchase acreage from Judge Jones, who sold land out of the 320-acre land grant he received during the Republic of Texas era and required payment ten years later. The grant was next to the Galveston, Houston, and Henderson Railroad in what is now west Texas City.

Founding families included the Brittons, Bells, Hobgoods, Phillips, and Caldwells. The Kneeland Britton family was the first family of the Settlement. Most of the families were headed by cowboys, and a large number of them still worked for George Washington Butler. One of the cowboys, Calvin Bell, settled in the area in 1874 with his wife Katie, who served as the first schoolteacher. The Bells, an interracial couple, were later charged with unlawful marriage, due to Texas anti-miscegenation laws, and in 1894 Katie Bell, a White woman, was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison; her husband was acquitted. A nearby cemetery, named for the Phillips family, was established in 1880. At that time the Settlement had approximately forty-two residents. By 1885 Reverend Campbell’s church, which was later named Greater Bell Zion Missionary Baptist Church, had become the center of the Black community.

By the mid-1880s and largely coinciding with the end of the major cattle drives, citizens of the 1867 Settlement began leaving their profession as cowboys and sought more structured, stationary work in agriculture or in the railroad industry. In 1900 the population was eighty-three and consisted mostly of relatives and descendants of the founding families. The community had an adult literacy rate of 88 percent, and the majority of its residents were landowners.

The population increased to approximately 120 in 1910. A train track, constructed in 1911 for the purpose of running an electric interurban between Houston and Galveston, ran through the middle of the 1867 Settlement, dividing it in half. A train stop, built at the border of nearby La Marque near the Settlement, resulted in local residents referring to the Settlement as Highlands because of its proximity to Highland Bayou.

In 1920 the Settlement had a hotel, restaurant, and Masonic lodge. Children had access to the La Marque Colored School, and as the population increased and spread into nearby La Marque, the community began to lose its identity. Many workers left agriculture in favor of industrial work at nearby plants in Texas City. The 1867 Settlement, with a population of around 400, obtained access to electricity in 1929, a decade before many of the surrounding towns. The Lincoln School opened in 1938 and provided education for all grades.

By 1950 the community had a pharmacy, photography studio, beauty shops, night clubs, gas stations, and Carver Park, but it encountered increased encroachment by larger neighboring cities. On September 9, 1953, Texas City annexed the land that was the Settlement. The former Settlement’s schools integrated in the 1960s, and the once concentrated locale for African Americans became more diffuse.

By the twenty-first century, some descendants of the original pioneers still lived or owned property within the Settlement’s historic boundaries. A Texas State Historical Marker was erected for the “Settlement Community” in 2007 on the grounds of the 1887 Frank Sr. and Flavilla Bell home, the oldest area structure, which has been preserved as a museum. Phillips Memorial Cemetery was declared a “Historic Texas Cemetery” by the Texas Historical Commission in 2008. In 2010 some of the original territory of the 1867 Settlement was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Greater Bell Zion Missionary Baptist Church received a Texas Historical Marker in 2012. In homage to its founders, the community holds an annual Black Cowboy Rodeo.