Stitched Together: Freedom Colony Families Along the Cibolo
In 1847 Joseph and Mary Polley loaded up all their worldly possessions into carts, and leaving the rather established community in Brazoria, headed some 200 miles to the Texas frontier on the banks of the Cibolo Creek in Wilson County. They would spend the next twenty years establishing their plantation, creating a flourishing cattle business, raising and educating their children, creating a community for their family, servants, visitors, and slaves, and building and furnishing a beautiful stone house that has endured for over 175 years. Polley Mansion, Whitehall. Courtesy of Robin Muschalek We know their story, because the family, being literate and privileged by education and wealth, kept records, and preserved those records for future generations [1] . For example, the Polleys bought a Seven Octave Rosewood Pianoforte from N. P. B. Curtiss, with pearl keys and carved legs in 1857, manufactured by Smith Atherton and Co., [2] and purchased in New York b...