Read's Opening

Aldrich's 1943 county history puts Robert Newton Read in Texas in 1843, earlier than the plaque's "by 1850", on the Huntsville Road a few miles south of Crockett. He calls him Judge Read, one of seven sons, and says the plantation he cleared is still known as Read's Opening. In 1870 Read bought a stock of merchandise from John H. Burnett in a store where the Crockett State Bank later stood. Aldrich thought the price about $5,000 cash. His daughter Louella married R. N. Stafford, who served many years in the Texas senate.

What the plaque says

Read's Opening The wide open expanse of land in this area was known to travelers in the 19th Century as an accessible route to and from the Trinity River. A landmark of the early landscape in Houston County, the prairie became known as Read's Opening after Robert Newton and Susan Asbury Moore Read moved here from Arkansas by 1850. The family established their farm at the opening and began to purchase other land in the area. R. N. Read also took ownership of several commercial operations in Crockett, including a mercantile business that his son later moved to Lovelady, and donated land for an African American Presbyterian church east of Crockett. The Reads moved to Mineola in 1876, but their legacy continues to be a part of Houston County history. (2002)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Ratcliff Lake Recreation Area — 20 mi
  A Davy Crockett National Forest lake of about 45 acres, built by the CCC in 1936 from a sawmill log pond, with a swimming beach, camping and the start of the 20-mile Four-C Trail.
• Mission Tejas State Park — 23 mi
  A 661-acre pine-forest park on the old El Camino Real near Weches, with a 1930s replica of the 1690 mission, the Rice Family Log Home and trails past remnants of the Spanish road.
• Caddo Mounds State Historic Site — 29 mi
  Three earthen mounds of an ancestral Caddo village and ceremonial center on the old El Camino Real, settled about A.D. 800 and still sacred to Caddo people, with a grass house and visitor center.

More markers nearby

• Givens Homesite — 0.9 mi
• Hall's Bluff — 1.9 mi
• Andrew Edwards Gossett — 2.0 mi
• Beasley Drive — 2.0 mi