FIRST - Church in Fayette County, Texas - Round Top, TX
Posted by: 
Raven
N 30° 03.854 W 096° 41.882
14R E 721906 N 3328136
Moore's Fort is a twin dogtrot-type blockhouse previously occupied by Colonel John Henry Moore around the time of the Texas Revolution. It was eventually used as the site for the first Church in Fayette County.
Waymark Code: WMZATD
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 10/10/2018
Views: 0
Colonel John Henry Moore (1800–1880) was an early Texas settler, one of the original "Old Three Hundred" land grantees to arrive in this area when it was still part of Mexico. While recognized for leading several military campaigns against local Indian tribes, he is best known for commanding the Battle of Gonzales on October 2, 1835: the first military engagement between the Mexican army and the Texians settlers at the start of the revolution for Texas independence. A great biography of John Henry Moore can be found on the Texas Historical Association's
Online Handbook.
Moore constructed this twin dogtrot-type blockhouse in 1828 at a site where the La Bahia Road -- an old Indian trail and subsequent road used by new settlers, extending all the way from Washington-on-the-Brazos to Goliad -- crosses the Colorado river in what is now the heart of Fayette County, Texas. This location eventually became the city of La Grange (established on May 17, 1831), the county seat of Fayette County located 15 miles southwest of here.
Moore and his family eventually moved to a new residence in 1838, to a new plantation 9 miles up North of his original blockhouse. He allowed new area settlers to use his old structure as a shelter and defense from Comanche Indian raids which were common at that time; it therefore became known as the "fort" to defend oneself against attacks from local Native Americans.
The building is listed as the oldest structure in Fayette County. An official sign by the building also states that it came to be used as the first church in that county as well (see inscription below).
Many decades after Moore's relocation to his new plantation, the old fort was moved to a new site within the city where it was maintained by Harvin and Elizabeth Moore, the then-current owners. It was eventually gifted to the Texas Pioneer Arts Foundation in 1976. A Texas Historical Marker is located at the site's original location near 385 N. Main Street in La Grange; it can be visited at the following waymark:
Site of a Twin Blockhouse (WMVP6R).
Around 2010, Mark Massey -- now Director of Round Top's Chamber of Commerce -- organized a campaign to have the old Fort relocated once again from La Grange to the small historic town of Round Top, where it was restored to its old glory and placed on permanent display at Rummel Square on Bauer-Rummel Road and White Street. While the building was brought here for historical public viewing, it is also currently used as a commercial establishment: a unique small fashion store called "
Bad Hombres".
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There's a sign by the entrance to the western block of the structure which reads:
"
Moores Fort
1831
John Henry Moore came to Texas in Austin's Colony in 1823. He built this Blockhouse in his 1/2 league of land in 1831, and founded the town of La Grange, where the La Bahia trace crosses the Colorado River. It is the oldest structure in Fayette County.
Elected Colonel in the 1835 Battle of Gonzales in the Texas Revolution, Moore went on to become a famous Indian fighter. He also founded in this building, The first church in Fayette County.
Moores Fort was saved, moved and restored by Harvin and Elizabeth Moore, and given to The Texas Pioneer Arts Foundation as a Bicentennial gift in 1976."
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