Hood County News, Wednesday, April 22, 1998
In 1849; George and Charles Barnard established the first white settlement in Hood County It was trading post on a slight hill above the Brazos River just across the river from present-day Pecan Plantation.
The trading post will be commemorated with a state historical marker at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 2.
The site of the trading post is just inside the Hood County line is in ruins and in a pasture that is largely inaccessible. The site is owned by Hood County resident O.C. Cheek. There are no plans to restore the trading post.
The public ceremony for the historical marker will be at the Georges Creek cemetery tabernacle just inside the Somervell County line. Having the ceremony at the tabernacle will make it easier for the public to attend explained Somervell County Historical Commissioner Dorothy Leach. To reach Georges Creek Cemetery, take U.S. 67 West east out of Glen Rose and turn left on County Road 308 past the Brazos River bridge. Members of the Hood County Historical Preservation Council and Johnson County Historical Commission will participate too in the ceremony.
The marker will actually be located on 67 near its intersection with County Road 308, Leach reported.
The Hood County Post was the second trading post established by the Bernard brothers. It served the Indians then living in North Texas. Sam Houston had promised the tribes a trading post would be set up in their country. The first post near Waco.
Charles Bernard married a Mexican girl ransomed from the Comanches. Juannah Cavassos was a teen-ager when captured by a Comanche war party on the Rio Grande. She was brought to the Bernard brothers for ransom at their Waco trading post. George Barnard purchased her for $300 in trade goods and his brother later married her in 1848.
The couple later moved to the Hood County location when the trading post was established. Their first son, John, was the first white child born in Hood County.
A mile southwest of the post was an Indian village of cabins and wigwam. A peanut field now covers the site, which is carpeted with flint chips.
Juannah and Charles lived at the post even after the native peoples were moved to Indian Territory.
In. 1860, Charles Bernard built a large limestone grist mill on the Paluxy River that was the nucleus of the present city of Glen Rose.
Here’s what the Hood County Trading Post looked like:
The trading house was a 1 1/2 story dog-run with two 24×24 rooms separated by a 14 foot- wide hall. The flooring was made of split cottonwood logs cut from the Brazos River bottoms and the roof was covered with cottonwood shingles.
A stone fireplace and chimney, flanked by windows at ground level were located on each end of the building. The foundation consisted of large limestone rocks. A 12 foot porch extended the front of the building, while a 16-foot wide shed ran the length of the building in back. All the windows had louvered shutters and the house was enclosed by a rail fence.
Charles and Juannah are buried with a number of their descendants in a small cemetery just southeast of the trading post site.
.For more information on the Barnard Trading Post ceremony call the Somervell County Historical Commission at (254) 897-9737.