Summary

Trees have stood as silent witnesses to the events that formed history. Plano’s Bicentennial Bur Oak tree witnessed the buffalo, which came to Rowlett Creek for water and the Caddo Indians that lived in the area. During the early settlement of Plano, the land was cleared for firewood and fence posts, but somehow the tree was spared. The tree witnessed the Prince brothers exploring the area and Albritton family’s recreational use of the property. Now located in a city park, the tree continues to grow and thrive after 239 years, therefore representing not only Plano’s past but its future.

editors note: Four years after the tree's registration, a storm damaged the tree leaving tree rings exposed. This allowed a definitive age determination to be made. This tree was determined to more than 500 years old; thus the name was changed from Bicentennial to Quincentennial.

Historic Narrative

Pre-Settlement  Early settlers who came in on wagons to settle on Rowlett Creek found the country with broad rolling prairies dotted here and there with groves of timber and streams of clear running water with thickets bordering the banks. It was the most colorful country they had ever seen for there were wildflowers of every color and variety all around them and wildlife in every direction. It is said that in the fall of the year, buffalo came to the watering places in great numbers and when given a scare, would stampede making a noise like thunder.(3)

Early settlers often chose their location with water and timber in mind, therefore, many settled along Rowlett Creek. Indians camped along the creek bring fear to the early settlers. Several miles upstream from Bob Woodruff Park on Rowlett Creek is the site of the Muncey Massacre in 1844. The entire family of Jeremiah Muncey along with McBain Jameson and William Rice's son were killed during and Indian raid. A party of men followed the Indians westward but the traveled fast and were not overtaken. This was the last known tragic Indian raid in Collin County.

After the massacre, the Indians sometimes came to the settler's camps interested only in horses and food, but the settlers lived in fear for years to follow. The Caddo Indians lived in Collin County and were an agricultural people who were generally not hostile. Attacks were always blamed on the fierce Comanche who made raids from the west.(4)

A Texas Historical Marker marks the site of the Muncey Massacre located at 2800 Spring creek Parkway on Collin County Community College Spring Creek Campus, Plano.(5)

Settlement of Texas  In order to encourage settlement, First Class land grants were issued to those who arrived to Texas before March 2, 1836, the date of the Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Texas. These grants were unconditional and the rights as well as the land could be sold at once. Heads of families were eligible for one league and one labor of land (4,605 acres); single men over the age of 17 before March 2, 1836 were eligible for one third of a league (1,476 acres).

The Fannin County Board of Land Commissions issued Andrew Piara a certificate for one third of a league (1,476 acres) on April 26, 1838.(6)

Andrew Piara sold half of his certificate to Curtis Moore and half to Daniel Rowlett on October 29, 1838. Curtis Moore had 738 acres (his half of 1,476) in Fannin County surveyed and patented in 1847. Daniel Rowlett had 738 acres (his half of 1,476) in Collin County surveyed in 1842, but he died in 1848 never applying for a patent on the land. In 1850, Andrew Piara sold Curtis Moore 738 acres in Collin County; however, he had already sold the rights to the land to Daniel Rowlett in 1838. At that time, Andrew Piara was living in the Choctaw Nation (Indian territory which is now Oklahoma).(7) A lawsuit followed from 1857-1870, lasting through the Civil War.

Dr. Daniel Rowlett Family The lawsuit over ownership of the property was titled the Heirs of Daniel Rowlett vs. Curtis Moore. A change of venue was granted from Collin to Fannin County in 1857.(8) The first trial ended in a deadlock in 1868. The suit was tried again in 1869 with a verdict for the plaintiff, the Heirs of Daniel Rowlett. In 1870, a third and final trial was held with the same results.(9)

Dr. Daniel Rowlett was never a resident of Collin County. He was born in Prince Edward County Virginia, in 1786 and came to Texas in 1836 from Calloway County, Kentucky, with his third wife, Mary “Polly,” his three daughters, Matilda, Celinda and Nancy, and six other families. He settled in present day Bonham and had an extensive plantation. He had three more children, Mary “Polly,” Daniel and John and was said to have been the wealthiest and most versatile of Fannin County pioneers, being a physician, lawyer, large slave holder, land contractor and surveyor, ferry operator and Indian fighter.

During the Republic of Texas, he was the first congressman from Fannin County. Rowlett Creek bears his name and his ancestors cherish the idea of all his accomplishments in early Texas. He died in 1848 and was buried in the Old Inglish Cemetery in Bonham.(10) A Texas Historical Marker marks his grave.(11)

Colonel Landon W. Oglesby  Colonel Landon W. Oglesby purchased the property from the Heirs of Daniel Rowlett in 1871.(12) His use of the property is unknown and his ownership only lasted for a short time. He was born about 1834 in Tennessee and came to Texas in 1866 or 1867 after serving as a Colonel in the Civil War, bringing his wife, Mary Martha, and his children, Hardin, Samuel B., Nancy Belle and Mary Lucetta. As soon as he arrived, he began buying property in Plano. He lived in a beautiful two-story home in the southeast section of Plano and had four more children, Landon W. Jr., Martha M. “Mattie,” John and Earl.

In 1873, he owned a general store in downtown Plano with William M. Lee, called Lee and Oglesby. The general store sold supplies for families, including farm tools, and “goods, wares, merchandise and provisions” necessary for a family to establish and maintain itself and to raise a crop. Some of these families pledged their future wheat crops as collateral for the supplies bought on credit.

In 1878, he became tax assessor/collector for Collin County, a position he held until November 1886. It is reported that he misappropriated funds from the County causing great losses for his bondsmen.(13) His great granddaughter, Nancy Judson of Morgantown, Indiana, reports three accounts told to her regarding his death in 1887. One account said he died at home of congestion of the brain, a second said he took poison at home and a third said he committed suicide in the St. George Hotel in Dallas.(14) He is buried in Plano Mutual Cemetery.

William T. Land and Family  William T. Land and wife, Mary, came to Texas from Charleston, East Tennessee in October 1866. They had one wagon and a span of mules. The family sharecropped on the farm of Captain John Coit, near the present town of Renner, for two years and then sharecropped with Colonel Landon W. Oglesby just south of Plano for three years. William T. Land purchased this property on Rowlett Creek and 150 acres of prairie land in west Plano from Colonel Oglesby on December 16, 1871.(15)

The 150 acres of prairie land, located at present day Plano Parkway between Coit Road and Ohio Drive, became the Land family farm raising cotton, wheat and corn until the late 1960s. The Rowlett Creek property was used for timber for the farm because timber was scarce on the prairie land. It is unclear why the bur oak trees on Rowlett Creek were spared from use. Area men were paid $4 an acre to break the prairie land with ox teams, ten yoke of oxen to the big plow and five or six yoke to the other plow. The prairie land was fenced with bois d'arc posts in the ground eight feet apart and rails from oak trees on Rowlett Creek. The rails were fastened with smooth wire, three rails to a panel.(16)

William T. Land and wife, Mary, had one son also named William T. Land. Their son, William T. Land, and his wife, Mattie A., had one son, Willie T., who married Mattie B. Culver and had three children Martha, Willie T. and Annie. Martha Land Gunter remembers gathering firewood on the Rowlett creek property to use on the farm and gathering pecans to be sold at Christmas time. She still resides in Plano and her only son, George T. Gunter, resides in Allen. George T. Gunter's children include Virginia, Kathleen, Gregory T. and Grant T.(17)