Ever driven to Austin Bergstrom Airport? Or, for that, matter driven away from that airport heading NorthWest/West? Chances are you have driven past The Davidson – Littlepage cemetery located on the Bastrop Highway coming toward Austin from the direction of the airport. Once the airport moved to Bergstrom, I became more and more interested in finding out why this cemetery is where it is, and who is buried there. My imagination ran wild and finally, because of an interest in posting some entries relating to the history of various parts of Austin (and the places we all drive by), I went to the Austin Historical Library on Guadalupe. The woman who assisted me was great, the material is awesome and my time was very quick in attaining my goals for this mysterious cemetery. Thanks to the reporting by Tom Barry of the Austin American Statesman, here is the findings (not exactly so exciting, but I can at least check this question off my list). The most exciting discovery was this piece of real estate could still be claimed by a relative….
“…This little graveyard hosts 5 markers with potentially 6 gravesites. When the highway department’s survey crew were surveying the mesquite pasture to make a place for the improved Bastrop Highway (completed in 1959), they came upon this little graveyard, its headstones tumbled to earth by time and neglect, completely obscured by grass and weeds. It was on the right-of-way, but it was not in the way of progress so saving it they did. All efforts to locate relatives of the long forgotten dead were in vain, so Texas Highway Department made an ‘’exception’’ in its right-of-way purchase, put up the current chain link fence, righted the headstones and cleared away the weeds. The dead of the little graveyard have been there, some of them, for more than a century. They may have been forgotten for almost that long. They are names like any other names, but pronouncing them means nothing, for who the people were, how they lived and died – all are as obscure as if the dead had never lived. A widely known historian of Travis County, Mrs Fred C. Barkley, knows quite a bit about the history of this county and tried for years to find out something about the little cemetery. Mrs Barkley could only report on rumor and speculation, but little else, the graveyard was originally Spanish land, part of the Del Valle grant. Some of the land was possibly deeded to people named Caldwell by a Spaniard, who deeded over the land in lieu of a law fee which resulted from the legal defense of his son in New Orleans by a lawyer name Caldwell…”
Inside the old iron fence are buried;
Martha Littlepage, who lived from 1837 to 1868
Susan V. Littlepage, born April 23, 1804 died Jan 21, 1870
A rugged, hand-hewn block of granite markes the grave of L.O. Davidson Campbell, wife of J.E. Campbell; Died November 1857
Another gravestone, shaped like a bishop’s mitre, marks the resting place of two persons-
Martha E.A., wife of A.M. Davidson, Born May 3, 1816 Died Apr.12, 1864
James A., Eldest Son of A.M. and M.E.A. Davidson, Born Aug 8, 1836, Died Dec. 8, 1856
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
The Austin Sales Pitch
Susan Davenport with The Austin Chamber of Commerce (http://www.austin-chamber.org/) is a fabulous spokesperson, no wonder we are doing so well!
She's a wonderful speaker, both fascinating and inspiring with regards to Austin and its potential. She stood in a room of Keller Williams Realtors (60 to 80 I am guessing), impeccably dressed, gave a positive presentation, then was a very good listener towards the random questions from the audience. If there was a question Susan did not have the answer to, she was the first to state such. There was so much information from the meeting and I will highlight some of the parts.
The Chamber has a great web site, and if you want a 130 page power point presentation she provided, let me know and I can attempt to email it. Her presentation focuses on the 5 county region surrounding the city of Austin; Travis, Hays, Bastrop, Williamson, Caldwell Counties. These other counties outside of Travis (where Austin resides) do have their own Chamber, but I believe some of the growth and ‘’bragging’’ is mixed in with these 5 counties.
As stated above, Susan had a lot to highlight regarding Austin; population growth (estimated to be over 2 million by 2015), job growth (around 91,000 expected in the next 5 years), highest per capita income in Texas metros, 8 colleges/universities with 118,000 students (consider in addition the professors/T.A.’s, custodian staff, etc.), nearly 71% of the population is under 45 (vs. 64% nationally), 39% of the population over 25 has a bachelor’s degree (vs. 27% nationally). Our main inflow of new residents comes from other Texas cities, which most likely stems from graduates of University of Texas and the other 7 universities/colleges.
Being a ‘’native Austinite’’, there are many of us that won’t live with our spouses anywhere else so a warning to all non-Austin folks, don’t marry an Austinite! California, Chicago and Miami also represent a high count for new residents coming to Austin. I think the outflow of people represents patterns with Dell Computers since two of the top three locations, North Carolina & Tennessee are areas where Austin residents move to/away. Another city which attracts a lot of Austinites is Atlanta.
Susan also got into another section of her presentation regarding the power of Austin; a large number of private employers, a number of business which call Austin their HeadQuarters, the corporate significance in general in Austin, recent new/expanded operations. A major success story is Samsung, with their large deposit into Austin for their business. Susan explained part of the success in earning Samsungs investment in Austin, relates to the University of Texas systems dedication to sending delegates to meetings involving the Chamber and companies. She wanted to emphasize recognition in the importance of the delegates since these employers need the student work force, the research, the resources.
Towards the end of her presentation, after going through her power point with one awesome bit of information after another, I could tell what the questions were going to be - “ok, what is the negative? Tell me something to be worried about?”
At this point, the audience took over relating stories from clients (Buyers and Sellers plus Realtors) about the problems with traffic, education rates, cost of living. The airport also caught some heat about the number of or lack of non-stop flights and lack of international flights for an international airport.
Susan mentioned how closely The Chamber watches the unemployment rate especially when it dips below 4%, what they consider full employment for statistical purposes. Full employment makes for a tougher atmosphere in hiring workers for these corporate giants Austin wants to bring in. When a ‘’C’’ level executive considers moving his family across the country to a new opportunity in Austin, Austin has to have a variety of fall back jobs in case something goes wrong for this ‘’C’’ level executive, so variety is very important within an industry/profession. Susan and The Chamber want to increase the stability, so successful in the 80’s when banking/oil were so upside down. Since Austin is the Capital plus host to University of Texas, there is a strong stable base of federal and state jobs.
Utilize the web site, (http://www.austin-chamber.org/), go to Economic Indicator and enjoy.
She's a wonderful speaker, both fascinating and inspiring with regards to Austin and its potential. She stood in a room of Keller Williams Realtors (60 to 80 I am guessing), impeccably dressed, gave a positive presentation, then was a very good listener towards the random questions from the audience. If there was a question Susan did not have the answer to, she was the first to state such. There was so much information from the meeting and I will highlight some of the parts.
The Chamber has a great web site, and if you want a 130 page power point presentation she provided, let me know and I can attempt to email it. Her presentation focuses on the 5 county region surrounding the city of Austin; Travis, Hays, Bastrop, Williamson, Caldwell Counties. These other counties outside of Travis (where Austin resides) do have their own Chamber, but I believe some of the growth and ‘’bragging’’ is mixed in with these 5 counties.
As stated above, Susan had a lot to highlight regarding Austin; population growth (estimated to be over 2 million by 2015), job growth (around 91,000 expected in the next 5 years), highest per capita income in Texas metros, 8 colleges/universities with 118,000 students (consider in addition the professors/T.A.’s, custodian staff, etc.), nearly 71% of the population is under 45 (vs. 64% nationally), 39% of the population over 25 has a bachelor’s degree (vs. 27% nationally). Our main inflow of new residents comes from other Texas cities, which most likely stems from graduates of University of Texas and the other 7 universities/colleges.
Being a ‘’native Austinite’’, there are many of us that won’t live with our spouses anywhere else so a warning to all non-Austin folks, don’t marry an Austinite! California, Chicago and Miami also represent a high count for new residents coming to Austin. I think the outflow of people represents patterns with Dell Computers since two of the top three locations, North Carolina & Tennessee are areas where Austin residents move to/away. Another city which attracts a lot of Austinites is Atlanta.
Susan also got into another section of her presentation regarding the power of Austin; a large number of private employers, a number of business which call Austin their HeadQuarters, the corporate significance in general in Austin, recent new/expanded operations. A major success story is Samsung, with their large deposit into Austin for their business. Susan explained part of the success in earning Samsungs investment in Austin, relates to the University of Texas systems dedication to sending delegates to meetings involving the Chamber and companies. She wanted to emphasize recognition in the importance of the delegates since these employers need the student work force, the research, the resources.
Towards the end of her presentation, after going through her power point with one awesome bit of information after another, I could tell what the questions were going to be - “ok, what is the negative? Tell me something to be worried about?”
At this point, the audience took over relating stories from clients (Buyers and Sellers plus Realtors) about the problems with traffic, education rates, cost of living. The airport also caught some heat about the number of or lack of non-stop flights and lack of international flights for an international airport.
Susan mentioned how closely The Chamber watches the unemployment rate especially when it dips below 4%, what they consider full employment for statistical purposes. Full employment makes for a tougher atmosphere in hiring workers for these corporate giants Austin wants to bring in. When a ‘’C’’ level executive considers moving his family across the country to a new opportunity in Austin, Austin has to have a variety of fall back jobs in case something goes wrong for this ‘’C’’ level executive, so variety is very important within an industry/profession. Susan and The Chamber want to increase the stability, so successful in the 80’s when banking/oil were so upside down. Since Austin is the Capital plus host to University of Texas, there is a strong stable base of federal and state jobs.
Utilize the web site, (http://www.austin-chamber.org/), go to Economic Indicator and enjoy.
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