Connection

Connection. Providence Church Historic Site. Brazos County and the Brazos River , The 840-mile Brazos is the longest river entirely within Texas. The Brazos carries more water into the Gulf of Mexico than any other such river. The Brazos and the Navasota Rivers determine the physical landscape of Brazos County, and thus shaped the economic and social development of the vicinity by serving as primary transportation routes into and out of the area. The Brazos River was, for much of the year, navigable to boat traffic only up to Hidalgo Falls, 20 miles south of the FM 60 Bridge. But in wet seasons boats could often travel as far upstream as Port Sullivan and even Waco. As important as they were for transportation into and out of the region, the rivers also proved barriers to local overland travel., Road Transportation , The early settler usually lived some distance from their nearest neighbors. They were connected by the unimproved dirt roads they cut that became dust tracks in the summer and quagmires in the winter. Crossing creeks and streams could be a risky undertaking. The most used roads were those that took the best advantage of the terrain in order to reduce these problems. These routes often traced wild game trails and Indian paths laid out hundreds of years earlier. Many were eventually paved with gravel and finally asphalt of concrete and incorporated into the modern road system that is today built and maintained by the Texas Department of Transportation., Railroad , Construction of the Houston and Texas Central Railroad halted at Millican during the Civil War, not reaching Bryan until 1867 and Hearne a year later. New communities quickly sprang up at intervals along the tracks. Train service delivered fresh farm products to distant markets and delivered needed trade goods to local farmers. Rail-side communities such as Millican, Wellborn, Allenfarm, Steele's Store, Stone City, and Pleasant Grove Church became the new business centers., River Crossing and Early Ferries , As westbound settlers began traveling through, the need for safe river crossings became apparent. The roads, developed following established trails, found their way to ancient Indian crossings. These became the sites of ferries and later, bridges. John H. Jones, Jr. built one of the first ferries in the area just north of the present Highway 60 Bridge. More ferries were built upstream and down, including Moseley's, Pitt's Evan's, Ridan's, Batt's, Bowie, Evitt's, Aldrige's, and Robinson's. There were so many such crossings it seemed that nearly every landowner operated a ferry at some times. For a fee, ferrymen transported travelers, livestock, and freight across the river., Bridges , The earliest bridges were mostly mud bridges, wooden planks held together with mud. True bridges, constructed of timber and iron became more common over time, the foundations of which can be seen from today's modern steel and concrete structures. On May 18, 1889, Brazos County Commissioners Court decided to build two iron bridges across the Brazos River. Because Jones Bluff offered a very stable approach, engineers located one of the bridges there, above Jones's Ferry. The road to the bridge became known as Jones Bridge Road and passed close by the site of Providence Church just as today's Farm-to-Market Road 60 passes this memorial.