Unusual natural formations or landmarks often collect a lot of history. People are drawn to certain places, whether for utility or beauty or both, over and over again. That was true 1,000 years ago, and still is today. Blackwell Crossing on Jim Ned Creek, in Brown County near the Coleman line, is one of those places that has that kind of draw. It’s a steep climb on either side of the crossing, and if you go down there after a good rain, the flooding is spectacular. It must have been interesting to get a horse and buggy across there back before there was the little concrete low-water crossing that is there now. There’s something about the spot that makes you want to stop, get out and look around.

I thought I could probably find some stories about this place, and I did. The first account I found, told by William W. Hunter, an early settler in the area and printed in the Coleman-Democrat Voice in May 1935 says this: “One day I went to the home of my sister who had married a man by the name of Ike Blackwell and lived further up Jim Ned Creek at the place which still bears his name, and is called Blackwell Crossing. Mr. Blackwell always boasted that he was not afraid of the Indians and did not believe that they would bother us,’ Hunter recalled. Unfortunately, Mr. Blackwell was not correct. The story tells that a young boy who worked for Blackwell was guarding his stock while he was away from home. At sunset the boy went to bring in the horses. He had just climbed on the back of a big roan, when 15 Indians, who had been hiding in the woods, tried to steal the horses. Hunter, who was visiting his sister at the time, saw the animals stampeding towards the Blackwell home, the boy still on the roan with the Indians in hot pursuit. He fired some shots, and the band fled. Shortly after this incident, the Massacre of the Williams family took place at the Williams Ranch, about six or eight miles from the crossing.

Blackwell Crossing was more than a place to cross the Jim Ned. There was a small community there at one time, and church services, baptisms and outdoor preaching marathons are mentioned in newspaper accounts related to the location. The website for Grosvenor Baptist Church tells a little about the church and school that were located there. “In the 1800s no hardships, obstacles, nor lack of a building in which to meet could deter the heartfelt need for spiritual guidance of this small settlement. Neighbors of all denominations would meet in private homes along the Jim Ned Creek near Blackwell Crossing. Circuit riders would stop by for sermons and a meal. Among them were Rev. Dan Mathews & Rev. J.M. Perry. Mathews and Perry and 19 others met on Oct. 23, 1875 and organized The First Baptist Church in Brown County. They named it The New Hope Baptist Church. Rev. Perry became its first pastor. They began meeting in a building west of the Fairview Cemetery. This building was the schoolhouse during the day and the church on Sunday. This building was destroyed by fire in 1880 destroying all records.” This church was eventually moved to William Hunter’s stagecoach site a few miles away and was called Eureka Church.

Extended revivals were held at Blackwell Crossing, along with doctrinal debates, one of which, on the subject of which day of the week churchgoers should gather, apparently lasted for four days! The Santa Anna News, July 1903 printed a notice about this epic doctrinal duel, sent in by a man called T.M. McHorse: “By request, I wish to state through the columns of the News that there will be a debate held at the Blackwell Crossing on the Jim Ned at the 21 day of July 1903, at 10 o’clock a.m. between Elder T.W. Fields and Elder C. R. Nickols. Elder Fields is a member of the seventh day Adventist Church and Elder Nickols is a member of the Christian church. This debate will last four days. The Sabbath question is the question to be discussed. This is a very important question and all should hear it discussed. Come and bring your tents as it is understood that everybody will camp on the grounds. There will be plenty of barbecued and fresh meat at the grounds, also provisions and other refreshments, also feed stuff for horses.”

This sounds to me like a forerunner of today’s vacation Bible school and probably the only vacation many out there at the time would have all year. I doubt that the scripture battles lasted the whole time. These sorts of events were also social gatherings, a way to while away some of the hot summer months next to the creek with family and friends. I did read about several rattlesnake bites reported around Blackwell Crossing, maybe from swimming or wading in the water during these activities. It wouldn’t be hard to get one today, if you wandered around enough out there.

A surprising amount of people still come to Blackwell Crossing, fishing and sometimes swimming, despite its relatively remote location. I haven’t found any traces of a small town there, but Fairview Cemetery is about two miles from the crossing. If I had to guess, that is probably where the church and school were, and where the Bible quoting campouts and shindigs took place.

I have no doubt that many more happenings took place at Blackwell Crossing, things that never were recorded. Maybe even the unknown history lends a sort of ambience to the site, adding to an almost magnetic need to stop the car and see what is there. The water still flows between the steep banks of the creek there, much the same as it must have for countless generations before ours. Perhaps far back in the ancient past, beyond recorded history, other people felt the same impulse to stop and listen to that water, to watch it sparkle over rocks and into the murky shadows along the edges, to feel a sort of timelessness there that still draws people there today.

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Diane Adams is a local journalist whose columns appear Thursdays on BrownwoodNews.com. Comments regarding her columns can be emailed to [email protected].