In 1988, a neglected property sparked a years-long restoration of the Moore-Hancock Farmstead, revealing its 1849 pioneer origins. Through hands-on work and community support, the site was preserved as Austin’s last log house on its original foundation.
For millions of years, the Moore-Hancock Farmstead site evolved from a sea floor to limestone hills shaped by faults, rivers, and springs. Archeological finds reveal that Native peoples thrived here for over 20,000 years, adapting to climate shifts and rich natural resources before being displaced by later migrations and settlers by 1849.
Stephen F. Austin intended to claim the land, but it was fraudulently deeded to Thomas Jefferson Chambers, leading to years of legal battles. The land later passed to George Spier, then Gideon White, whose daughter Elizabeth and her husband Martin Moore built the Moore-Hancock Farmstead in 1849.
Elizabeth White and Martin Moore were among Austin’s first settlers, building a life through land, trade, and civic involvement. Their legacy lives on in the Moore-Hancock Farmstead, a rare surviving symbol of Austin’s early history.
At 16, Kate Moore fell for Ben Thompson, a dashing Confederate soldier with a dangerous streak. Their whirlwind marriage began a tumultuous life of love, violence, and long separations. Despite hardship, Kate remained loyal through war, jail, tragedy, and scandal. Though once wealthy, she died young and in debt - but her legacy lives on through her descendants, the only surviving line of the Moore-Hancock Farmstead.
This moving panorama tells the story of Ben Thompson, a Confederate soldier turned gambler and gunfighter, his turbulent marriage to Kate Moore, their family struggles, and his violent, adventurous life in post-Civil War Texas until his death in 1884.
When Kate Moore married Ben Thompson during the late Civil War years, their turbulent family story - marked by Ben’s fierce defense of Kate against her brother Jimmy’s betrayals, a resulting shooting, and Ben’s subsequent imprisonment - began in the Moore homestead and ended with his later role as Austin’s marshal before his death in an 1884 San Antonio gunfight.
Judge John Hancock was a Unionist lawyer, slaveholder, and Congressman in Confederate Texas. Though controversial, he helped shape Austin’s early growth and freed some of his own enslaved children. His only lasting legacy is the Moore-Hancock Farmstead—and his Black descendants, including actress Aisha Tyler.
From 1902 to 1953, John and Hulda Wallis and later Dr. Harry Newton preserved the Moore-Hancock Farmstead by modernizing and expanding it, unintentionally ensuring its survival - thanks to their efforts and a stroke of luck in 1988, the farmstead still stands today.
The Moore-Hancock Farmstead in Austin, Texas, embodies a deeply layered Black history - spanning slavery, family separations, interracial lineage, post-emancipation resilience, and ongoing legacy - while underscoring the nation's broader failure to fully confront and preserve the lived realities of the enslaved.
This collection of personal narratives tells the stories of enslaved individuals in 19th-century Texas - detailing their forced separations, resilience, and pursuit of freedom - offering a deeply human perspective on the enduring impact of slavery and the struggle to rebuild their lives after Emancipation.
Salem Hancock, born into slavery in Alabama around 1830 and likely the son of his white enslaver, was brought to Texas, where he served Judge John Hancock for decades before becoming one of the few formerly enslaved people to own land shortly after Emancipation - building a respected life as a farmer, stockman, and community member whose lineage ended in the early 20th century.
Rubin, born into slavery around 1835 on a plantation in Alabama where his white father was likely the owner John Allen Hancock, was sold and moved to Texas with his enslaved family, lived and worked on Judge John Hancock’s farm, married Elizabeth Peoples, gained freedom after the Civil War, became a landowner and farmer in Texas, and his family remained on that land for generations until the mid-20th century.
Orange, born into slavery around 1837 in Alabama as the mixed-race son of a plantation owner’s teenage son, was later moved to Texas by his father, Judge John Hancock, where he remained enslaved until emancipation in 1865, eventually becoming a successful landowner, farmer, church deacon, and patriarch of a large family in the Austin area before his death in 1908.
Payton, born around 1840-41 as the youngest of four mixed-race enslaved “brothers” on John Allen Hancock’s Alabama plantation and fathered by the white master himself, endured slavery, multiple family losses, and the upheavals of the Civil War before becoming a landowning farmer near Austin, Texas, raising a large family whose descendants continue today.
Hugh Berry Hancock, born in 1855 in Austin, Texas, was the biracial son of Judge John Hancock and an enslaved woman, Eliza; freed and educated in Oberlin, Ohio, he lived a complex life marked by social exclusion, political involvement, legal troubles, and family ties.
While restoring the Moore-Hancock Farmstead, Karen Collins discovered a board with turquoise, milk-based paint enscribed with "Emma 1868," linking the home to Emma Wicks, daughter of formerly enslaved family members, whose descendants confirmed the history of African American residence on the property and revealed complex family ties to Judge John Hancock.
In this 1937 WPA interview, Emma Hancock Wicks, an 80-year-old former slave, recounts her life from slavery through freedom, describing her family’s work on Texas plantations, her relationships with her owners, daily hardships, and her experiences growing up and raising her family after emancipation.
Karen Sikes Collins recounts how, beginning in 1989, she and professional archaeologist Mike undertook a careful, long-term restoration and archaeological excavation of an original-site historic Texas log house and outbuildings, uncovering rare Republic of Texas artifacts and thousands of historical items while responsibly preserving and documenting the site for future study.
About six weeks after acquiring the farmstead, the owners were visited by Ken Oden, Travis County Attorney, who proposed that community service hours from the Delta Tau Delta fraternity be used to help restore the historic property, leading to a year-long collaboration that benefited both the fraternity and the preservation project.
The Moore-Hancock Farmstead, established in 1849 on Upper Georgetown Road, offers a detailed glimpse into the lives, families, and changing landscape of a pioneering Travis County community from the mid-1800s to early 1900s through historical records and descendant stories.