There was a big migration of people here about 1876 and following
years. Crews and others. Maybe a lot of Confederate veterans. The early
bunch, the Claunches, Snells,
Mannings, Rices,
Jimmie
and Henry Carter, had come earlier. Believe he said the Claunches came
from near San Marcos, but not sure. This was the time that the Nesters
started really coming in, and later began to run things.
(From subsequent information, it seems that prior to 1880 when the Santa
Fe was planning to come into Texas, it was thought it would run by
Hamilton. Some able men were here at the time, such as M. N. Baker, from
Toledo, Ohio; Mr. S. D. Felt, first a sheep rancher then flour miller, and
later Spindle top always in the oil business; Major C. W. Cotton, lawyer
and county judge, later put on the River Oak Addition of Houston; Mr. W.
W. Lynch, originally from South Carolina went to Amarillo in 1909, and put
in the San Jacinto Addition, and so on.)