W.Y Penn Home, Historical Marker Georgetown, Texas

The land upon which the Penn Home stands has been owned by the following persons, as indicated by Abstract of Title No. 45409 of Williamson County:

1. On Aug. 19, 1844, Clement Stubblefield was granted by the Republic of Texas one-third league (1476 acres) of land as his headright "as a collinest or settler by Emigration to this Repub­lic." Stubblefield had come to Texas from his native Tennessee in February 1836 and was living in Jasper Municipality (later County) when Sam Houston signed the grant of land to him. The land was located in Milam Municipality--the section later to become Williamson County and, more specifically, a portion of George­town. The grant of 1844 was filed on Sept. 29, 1851. (Deeds Vol. 2, 366)

2. On Oct. 10, 1848, Clement Stubblefield's sale of 1476 acres to Thomas B. Huling (a land speculator operating throughout Texas) for $150 was recorded. (Williamson County Deeds Vol. 1, 20-22) This transaction was also recorded in Jasper County. Neither Clement Stubblefield nor Thomas B. Huling is known ever to have lived in Williamson County.

3. On April 12, 1850, Thomas B. Huling's transfer of the same property was filed, the sale having been made the same month. George Washington Glasscock, Sr., was the grantee. He had become a partner of Huling's inland development and speculation, and beginning in 1848 when Williamson County was formed, had sold considerable acreage in that area. In the Huling to Glasscock deal, Huling transferred all the land which he had owned and which Glasscock had already sold, prior to Huling's revoking of Glasscock's power of attorney, in the aforementioned tract to Glasscock. The unsold portion of the tract was to be divided--half of that south of the South San Gabriel River at Georgetown to go to Glasscock, the other half and all other portions of the tract to remain the property of Huling. (Deeds Vol. 1, 372.)

4. On April 27, 1855, G. W. Glasscock sold to Mary Williams 25 acres of land from the tract for $50. (Deeds, Vol. 6, 51) Marriage records for Williamson County (Vol. 1, 155) reveal that Mary Williams was married to Wm. E. Bouchelle on Sept. 7, 1856.

G. W. Glasscock, likewise a land speculator, through his partnership with Ruling, a state legislator, knew of the pending formation of Williamson County in 1848, and Glasscock had persuaded the new county's temporary commissioners to select the site of Georgetown for the county seat. Glasscock and Ruling owned the land on this site and offered to give it with the stipulation that it become the county seat and be named Georgetown for George Washington Glasscock, one of the donors. Tile offer was accepted, and the town was so-named. Glasscock had purchased considerably more land in the area or had traded for it through his services as a surveyor, and it was some of this land that Mary Williams and her future husband would own after 1855.

Glasscock lived at Georgetown from 1848, venturing in a number of businesses, especially real estate and milling, and in 1853 moved to Travis County. He served as representative from Travis and Williamson counties in the State Legislature the tenth and eleventh terms and died in 1868, the result of injuries sustained when he fell from a mule he was riding at his Webberville farm. He had ten children, a number of whom remained in Williamson County, and numerous descendants still lived there in 1974. William E. Bouchelle, in the mid-1850s, described several of the early roads and trails through Williamson County, including the Double File Trail and the roads from Kenney Fort (Brushy Creek) to Coleman Fort and to Austin. This early description is extant. [Land of Good, Water, pages 124-127, 149-150]

5. On March 2, 1857, the tract of land in question again changed hands (filed Dec. 29, 1857, in volume 7, page 282, Deed Records). William E. Bouchelle and Mary Bouchelle sold ten acres of their land to Thomas P. Hughes of Georgetown for $125.00, and, at the same time, Hughes also purchased an adjacent tract from G. W. Glasscock, the latter transaction dated Feb. 16, 1857, and recorded in volume 7, page 59 of Williamson County Deeds, and was for $221.87 for 17 acres.

Thomas P. Hughes came to Georgetown early in 1851 to set up a law practice. He became active in business and civic and political affairs of the town and community. Descendants of his still live in Georgetown in 1974. He practiced law, was a delegate for his county to the secession convention in Austin beginning of the Civil War, and, about 1880, Sam Houston's second youngest son, William Rogers Houston, read law in his office. The tract of land which he purchased is now a residen­tial section of Georgetown, but at that time, it was south of the town and was referred to as Judge Hughes' farm. Hughes engaged in the cattle business during the 1870s, advertising his cattle brand in the local newspaper. A map in the abstract delineating Hughes' property shows that it included "Block B" in Georgetown, the same block later housing the Penn home.

Block B was at that time bordered by Elm Street, Magnolia Street, Myrtle Street, and Palmetto Street. The names Myrtle and Elm are still in use, but the other two have become numbered streets. This section was a part of the Hughes "farm," and on another part, a short distance to the northwest, in 1860, Judge Hughes began "improvements" on three acres of his seventeen-acre farm. His improvements included a stone home fronting on University Avenue on the north and near Church Street, which ran to the west, but labor was difficult to obtain during the Civil War, and the home was not completed until afterward. His family moved into the large two-story residence, and members of the family lived in it until it was torn down after the death of the second Mrs. Hughes in 1922. Thomas P. (Proctor) Hughes married, and he and his wife, Sue, had three children, John D. Hughes, Mattie R. Hughes (married C. C. Cody), and Louetta Hughes (married A. A. Booty). Mrs. Sue Hughes died about 1871; Judge Hughes re­married in 1877.

One child by him and his second wife, Mrs. Jennie Hughes, was Thomas P. Hughes, Jr., their only offspring. Thomas P. Hughes, Sr., died December 31, 1899, and his widow, Mrs. Jennie Hughes, died April 29, 1922. After her death, the old home was torn down, and the property was divided among their heirs. [Genealogical information from the Abstract; other information from Land of Good Water, pages 156-157, 184, 194, 211, 231, 242, 247] Judge Hughes was also on the board which formed the Georgetown Railroad Company and built a tap line to Round Rock to intersect the county's first railroad, the International and Great Northern, there, in 1878. He was also an early and staunch supporter of Southwestern University, which was moved to Georgetown in 1873. [Ibid.]

6. Block B remained unsold by T. P. Hughes until Dec. 31, 1894, when he conveyed it to his daughter, Mrs. Lou Ella (sic in the abstract) Booty (filed Feb. 26, 1895, volume 71, p. 593). The transaction for Block B, which was 240 feet square, was for $1400.

7. On June 13, 1895, A. A. Booty and Mrs. Louetta Booty sold the north half of Block B to W. Y. Penn for $700 (filed Mar. 26, 1896, volume 75, p. 528). Their new lot was 240 feet by 120 feet in size. "Immediately after purchase • • • W. Y. Penn. . . enclosed same by a good and substantial fence and erected a two-story residence and other improvements" and occupied the house as his home. This is the home now being considered for a medallion. [The following history of W. Y. Penn was furnished by his niece, Mrs. Tom E. Johnson, Rt. 7, Box 928, Austin, Texas, in a Feb. 1974 letter to Mrs. Estha Scoggins of Georgetown, and in another letter dated March 1, 1974, to Mrs. Clara Scarbrough of Georgetown, and from a newspaper story from the Williamson County Sun of Georgetown dated Dec. 7, 1950, J. William Y. Penn was born in San Felipe, Texas, Nov. 12, 1860, received early education in a rural school there and, with his brother, worked a small farm which their father had pro­vided.

As William Penn was plowing the land preparatory to planting a corn crop in February 1877, his father's brother arrived for a visit. The father purchased half interest in his brother's book store in Austin, and informed his son, William Y., that he was to return to Austin with his uncle to learn the business, leaving at once. The next morning, the young teenager was in Austin clerking in the book store. In a short time, his father, Robert Rives Penn, had disposed of his Austin County interests and moved to Austin. In 1880, he sold his interest in the book store there and moved his family to Georgetown in July of that year. There the son, William Y. Penn, immediately opened a book store, where he also offered cigars and confections. In 1887 he sold the cigar and confection rights to Carl Burkhart and bought the jewelry business of W. D. Pfaeffle, combining it with his books. In an interview of later years, Mr. Penn recalled that "November of 1887 was an eventful time, namely election day; a circus was in town and in the evening of that day he became the `husband of the charming Lizzie Robertson. He was one of Georgetown's early City Aldermen and Mayor, serving one year as Alderman and two terms as Mayor. He was a member of the First Methodist Church of Georgetown, was on the official board for twenty years, was Past Master of San Gabriel Lodge No. 89 A. F. and A. M., and a Past Chancellor of the Knights of Pythias.

Files of the Georgetown newspaper The Williamson County Sun, for 1894 and 1895 reveal bits of information about Penn. On October 11, 1894, he advertised "spectacles to fit any eyes" and also offered a patented adjustable aluminum frame for glasses. These advertisements continued through November. On November 29, 1894, the paper announced that W. Y. Penn was closing his "Bargain Store" (apparently a dry goods store) on January 1 "on account of having to give up the house I now occupy." He continued, how­ever, with his optical advertising well into 1895. The March 28, 1895 issue noted that Penn & Stone were advertising real estate "in south end addition," and we're also offering loans and insurance. In August 1895, the paper carried a story about building in the town, noting that during the previous 12 months, new buildings had included a 3 story public school and 31 other buildings, mostly in the "Southern part of the town." These 31 included the "Southside" residences of W. Y. Penn and his neighbor, J. A. McDougle, who built similar imposing Victorian homes, as well as about a dozen more in this new development. Penn continued to advertise eyeglasses and his jewelry store through 1895 and through December 31, 1896. His business, political, and civic interests heretofore men­tioned, suggest that he was a substantial and respected citizen of the town.

8. On January 1, 1907, W. Y. Penn and his wife, Lizzie, conveyed the north half of Block B, on which stood the Penn home, to the Georgetown District of the North West Texas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South for $4500. The deed was filed in Williamson County on Jan. 15, 1907, volume 123, p. 3. W. Y. Penn moved to San Antonio that year and died there on April 15, 1951, is buried in the Penn Family lot in the Odd Fellows Cemetery, Georgetown, with his father, mother, and one sister.