After Slavery: The Rubin Hancock Farmstead, 1880-1916, Travis County, Texas

Abstract

From 1984 to 1987, a series of survey, testing, and excavation projects was undertaken by the Texas State Department of Highways and Public Transportation (SDHPT, now the Texas Department of Transportation, TxDOT) at site 41TV875, the Rubin Hancock farmstead in Travis County. In 1998, TxDOT contracted with Prewitt and Associates, Inc., to complete the analysis, report production, and curation requirements for the mitigation work on both the prehistoric and historic components of the site. The results of the prehistoric investigations are reported in a separate volume (Gadus et al. 2000). This volume details the history and archeology related to occupation of 41TV875 by the African American Hancock family from ca. 1880 to 1916. All previous investigations by SDHPT are discussed in detail. Using previous and current research, a thorough history of the Hancock family is presented. Rubin and his wife, Elizabeth, as well as many of their family members, had been slaves of the prominent Austin judge, John Hancock. Upon emancipation, Rubin and his three brothers along with their families became landowning farmers in the area north of Austin, which eventually developed into the small African American community of Duval. This historical research has been linked to the archeological features and material culture to develop an understanding of rural African American lifeways in central Texas at the turn of the century. This analysis has been compared and contrasted with research done at several other localities, including the adjacent Anglo American community of Waters Park, the African American community of Friendship in Delta County, and the farm owned by African American Ned Peterson in Brazos County. vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A variety of people worked in cooperation to bring this project to a successful completion. At the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), Nancy Kenmotsu provided general oversight for completion of reports on both the historic and prehistoric components at 41TV875. Diane Dismukes at TxDOT managed the historic portion of the project and provided useful comments on the draft report. All original survey, testing, excavation, archival research and informant interviews done by TxDOT were undertaken or supervised by John W. Clark Jr. His tireless efforts on behalf of the Rubin Hancock site have preserved an important page in Texas history. The TxDOT excavation crew withstood a sweltering Texas summer and inundation by fire ants to work at 41TV875. During the two months of fieldwork, crew members included Gregory Hunter,

The Prehistoric Components at the Rubin Hancock Farmstead, 41TV875, Travis County, Texas

“…This reconstruction provides the basis for interpreting features and addressing questions concerning site layout and distributional patterning. Much of the records review was completed as part of the analysis of the historic materials (see Blake and Myers 2000). This effort produced a verified provenience list that coordinates unit, artifact bag/lot number, level, and depth in feet below surface with the original artifact inventory.…”

“…Zone 1 likely is a plow zone, as Rubin Hancock used the western part of the site as a garden area (see Blake and Myers 2000). Zone 4 also was described on the excavation record form for Unit E586+95/N175 as having a reddish sandy loam matrix.…”

The Ransom and Sarah Williams Farmstead: Post-Emancipation Transitions of an African American Family in Central Texas Vol. 2

“…Archeological survey and documentation of multiple African American farmsteads on 4,433-acres at the Red River Army Depot and Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant (Gadus and Freeman 1998) • Travis County. Archival and archeological research at the Rubin Hancock farmstead (Blake and Myers 1999) • Fort Bend County. Archeological survey and documentation of multiple African American farmsteads on a 1,400-acre residential development site (Iruegas et al 2007) • Travis County.…”

“…The original archeological work was done by the State Department of Highways and Public Transportation (now TxDOT) in 1987 as part of a road development project, but the data analysis and reporting were completed a decade later by Blake and Myers (1999). The work includes archival research on the ethnically mixed community, the Hancock family, and their 83-acre farm, and it describes the archeological investigations, cultural features, and recovered artifacts.…”