Part 5

Part 5, Note 12

Colorado County Deed Records, Book J, pp. 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 503, Book U, pp. 447-449; Colorado Citizen, September 29, 1859. Hereford did not file the plat of his town at the courthouse until 1878. Then, he stated that he had laid out the town "in say 1855 or 6" (see Colorado County Deed Records, Book U, p. 449). The same day that Hereford purchased the Terrell plantation, November 28, 1853, Townsend was appointed postmaster at the newly created Prairie Cottage Post Office. Four months later, on March 16, 1854, he was also appointed to serve as postmaster at another new post office, this one called Millins. Both of Townsend's post offices were discontinued on the same day, August 18, 1854. Given that we know that Townsend lived on the site of Prairie Point in August 1856, we might assume that the Prairie Cottage Post Office was the genesis of the town. However, the application for the Prairie Cottage Post Office states that the Columbus Post Office was thirteen and three-fourths miles east of the proposed new post office, and that the Oakland Post Office was nine miles "westerly" of it. The Oakland Post Office was in Lavaca County, about a mile from where Prairie Point was established. From this information, we must conclude that Townsend's Prairie Cottage Post Office was not on the site of Prairie Point, and the fact that his post office was established on the same day as Hereford bought the land on which he established Prairie Point was a remarkable coincidence (see Post Office Department Reports of Site Locations, 1837-1950, National Archives Microfilm Publication M 1126, Reel 569).