Rose Colony/Bear Creek

Freedpersons organized the Rose Colony/Bear Creek community atop overgrown farmlands between Bear and Slaughter Creeks during the 1870s. It was founded largely by Black farming families whose homesteads anchored the community in southwest Travis County, adjacent to the Antioch Freedom Community in Hays County (1). The community precedes the founding of Manchaca in 1881, and its founders include some of the area's earliest residents (2). 

Among the earliest African American families to settle in or near what would become the Rose Colony/Bear Creek community were Sarah and Ransom Williams. Ransom Williams purchased 45 acres of farmland about twelve miles south of downtown Austin in 1871, where he’d later live with his wife and children (3). Many freedpersons worked as tenant farmers, sharecroppers, or wage laborers, saving up to purchase or earn land titles in later years. One such family is that of Jack and Mary Dodson, who rented land along Onion Creek for years before eventually purchasing 115 acres in Rose Colony in 1891.

A school in Rose Colony was established in 1877 for colored children living in and adjacent to what would become the town of Manchaca (4). It was originally known as the “Union Grove School, and was located about two miles east of Sarah and Ransom Williams’ farm. Early trustees of the school included John Rose and Jack Dodson (5).