Part one
The Errand
A quartermaster died at the Alamo in 1836 and left no children, so his brother came to Texas to take the estate out of another man’s hands. He stayed. He helped bring Navarro County into being, kept its first books, opened its first post office, organized its Masonic order, and gave the ground where Dresden’s church and cemetery still stand.
Part two · coming soon
The Cottonwood
What staying looked like: fifteen dollars’ worth of beef the Republic would not pay for, a boy bought for four hundred and twenty-five, and a wagon carried across Richland Creek a piece at a time.
Part three · coming soon
A Post Office on a Front Porch
In 1846 the Post Office Department granted a post office in a room four feet by six built onto a front porch, and named it Melton, Texas. Six years later it renamed it Dresden. Two years after that, the place missed being the county seat by one vote.
Part four · coming soon
Melton’s Garden
A stranger rode up ill in 1844 and died before anyone got his name. He is the first grave in the garden. Ethan Melton is in it too, and not in the cemetery he gave away.
Part five · coming soon
The Blacksmith’s Bills
On 26 February 1836 Noah T. Byars filed two bills at Washington-on-the-Brazos, and the auditor refused both because he could not vouch for the officers who had ordered the work. Eight days later both officers were dead at the Alamo.
Part six · coming soon
Where the Land Went
The Republic paid for Eliel Melton’s death in land: about four thousand acres, in three grants, in three counties. It took his heirs until 1871 to get the last patent. Here is where the acres went.
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