Harrison and McCulloch Stage Stop

Harrison and McCulloch competed hard for immigrants landing on the coast. In November 1847, answering the successful Brown and Tarbox line, they started a United States Line of stages between Port Lavaca and Victoria, then extended it with a four-horse weekly coach to New Braunfels by way of Cuero, Gonzales and Seguin, connecting with the Houston stage and the San Antonio-Austin line. A December 1848 advertisement promised travelers landing at Indian Point an excellent coach to the interior. Viktor Bracht reported in 1848 that Brown and Tarbox charged twenty dollars from Houston to Austin.

What the plaque says

HARRISON AND McCULLOCH STAGE STOP THE HARRISON AND McCULLOCH STAGE LINE BEGAN RUNNING STAGECOACHES FROM THE TEXAS COAST TO CENTRAL TEXAS AS EARLY AS 1848. THE LINE WAS A PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN BROTHERS-IN-LAW, JOHN S. HARRISON (1818-1864) AND WILLIAM McCULLOCH (1819-c.1854), AFTER DISSOLVING THEIR PARTNERSHIP WITH DR. CALEB S. BROWN OF GONZALES (HARRISON & BROWN STAGE LINE) IN 1850. THEIR STAGE LINE WAS PART OF A NETWORK OF COMPETING STAGE LINES AND "STAR ROUTES" THAT CONTRACTED WITH THE UNITED STATES POST OFFICE DELIVERING TRAVELERS AND MAIL THROUGHOUT CENTRAL TEXAS. STAR ROUTES 6285, 6154 AND 6155 RAN FROM INDIANOLA, PORT LAVACA AND GALVESTON TO NEW BRAUNFELS AND AUSTIN AND BACK. JOHN S. HARRISON ALSO OWNED THE VICTORIA HOTEL IN VICTORIA WHERE HE HOUSED HIS STAGE PASSENGERS OVERNIGHT ON THEIR WAY INLAND. IN 1852, HARRISON MOVED TO SELMA, MAKING IT HIS HOME. HIS HOUSE WAS LISTED ON THE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES IN 2006 AND DECLARED A STATE ARCHEOLOGICAL LANDMARK IN 2009. HARRISON WAS THE FIRST POSTMASTER OF SELMA AND HELD THAT POSITION FOR TWO YEARS. THE SELMA STAGE STOP, AS IT IS KNOWN TODAY, WAS ONE OF THE STOPS ON HARRISON & McCULLOCH'S STAR ROUTE 6285 THAT RAN FROM AUSTIN TO SAN ANTONIO. IN 1852, THE ROUTE TOOK 18 HOURS TO COMPLETE, LEAVING AUSTIN AT 3 AM AND TRAVELING THE OLD POST ROAD AND SECTIONS OF EL CAMINO REAL DE LOS TEJAS THROUGH OPEN PRAIRIE TO MANCHAC SPRING, SAN MARCOS, BONITO, NEW BRAUNFELS AND SELMA, ARRIVING IN SAN ANTONIO AT 9 PM THAT NIGHT. THE SELMA STAGE STOP IS A PRIME EXAMPLE OF "LIMECRETE CONSTRUCTION," A PROCESS USING WOODEN FORMS AND "SLIP," A MIXTURE MADE FROM SAND AND PEBBLES FOUND IN THE NEARBY RÍO CIBOLO. SHARDS OF WOOD AND CORNCOBS WERE FORCED INTO THE DRYING SLIP FOR ADDED STRENGTH. (2012)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Natural Bridge Caverns — 8.1 mi
  The largest known cavern in Texas, found in 1960 by four college cavers under a ranch family's land, entered beneath a 60-foot limestone bridge and still growing.
• Sophienburg Museum and Archives — 13 mi
  The hilltop where Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels raised the Adelsverein's headquarters in 1845, now the museum and archive of the German colony that became New Braunfels.
• The Alamo — 15 mi
  Mission San Antonio de Valero before it was a fort: a church its builders never finished, a thirteen-day siege in 1836, and the Army gable of 1850-52 that became its emblem.
• La Villita Historic Arts Village — 16 mi
  The little village across the river from the presidio, where Cos surrendered San Antonio in 1835, rebuilt by Depression-era youth crews as a working crafts village.

More markers nearby

• Site of Geier and Schmid Farm — 0.6 mi
• Edens Cemetery — 2.1 mi
• Schertz — 2.3 mi
• St. Paul Church — 5.0 mi