Thomas Haynes and Family Arrive in Calhoun County
Thomas Haynes arrived in Texas in 1844, shortly before Texas was admitted to the Union. He was an attorney and land trader. He apparently arrived at Indianola (Calhoun County) on a steamship from New Orleans in 1844 or earlier. We have proof that he was in Calhoun County in 1844, but do not know for sure that his family accompanied him on his initial trip. His second wife Celia Ann Webb Haynes and several young children may have remained in New Orleans for a while because she was pregnant with their fourth son, Robert, and census records show that Robert was born in New Orleans in 1845.
Thomas Haynes arrived in Texas in 1844, shortly before Texas was admitted to the Union. He was an attorney and land trader. He apparently arrived at Indianola (Calhoun County) on a steamship from New Orleans in 1844 or earlier. We have proof that he was in Calhoun County in 1844, but do not know for sure that his family accompanied him on his initial trip. His second wife Celia Ann Webb Haynes and several young children may have remained in New Orleans for a while because she was pregnant with their fourth son, Robert, and census records show that Robert was born in New Orleans in 1845.
First Texas Land Deal
A portion of Texas GLO historic map 887 of Calhoun County
In the first Texas land deal that we have been able to find for Thomas, he bought an undivided 1/5th interest in a 1,000 acre tract that included all of the lots in the new town of (Port) Lavaca that had not already been sold, as recorded in Book 2, page 123 in Victoria County on December 15, 1844. (Thomas may have arranged this deal while he was still in New Orleans, because two of his partners were also from New Orleans.) After handling the legal work associated with splitting the unsold lots and blocks in the town among the partners, as recorded in Book A, page 74 in Calhoun County, Thomas owned about 9 percent of the town, consisting of 5 entire blocks of 12 lots each, plus 32 other lots scattered around the town. He sold all of his Lavaca lots over a period of 8 or 9 years, and probably lived in Lavaca with his family some of this time, occasionally traveling overland to Victoria and to Texana in Jackson County for legal work, although the travel from Lavaca to Texana may have been by steamboat across Lavaca Bay and up the Lavaca and Navidad rivers.
The Texas GLO map 887 shown above is from 1863, so it was drawn about 18 years after Thomas bought a share of Port Lavaca. By this time, because of its deeper water that could accommodate larger ships, Indianola had developed into the major port in South Texas. However, Indianola was built on a sandbar, whereas Lavaca was about 15 feet above sea level, and Lavaca survived the hurricanes of 1875 and 1886, while Indianola perished in the later storm and ensuing fire.
The Texas GLO map 887 shown above is from 1863, so it was drawn about 18 years after Thomas bought a share of Port Lavaca. By this time, because of its deeper water that could accommodate larger ships, Indianola had developed into the major port in South Texas. However, Indianola was built on a sandbar, whereas Lavaca was about 15 feet above sea level, and Lavaca survived the hurricanes of 1875 and 1886, while Indianola perished in the later storm and ensuing fire.
Thomas did make one small land purchase of two labors (354 acres) in Jackson County early on (in 1845, Book B, page 446), perhaps sight-unseen, since the land was far to the north and, as stated in the deed, had been purchased from Hamlet Ferguson of Lavaca, where Thomas probably was living. (It is interesting to note that Thomas held on to this small piece of land for eight years, and eventually sold it for only half of what he had paid for it ($1 per acre) So his first land investment in Jackson County was a dismal failure, but much more exciting things happened before he discovered that.)