Duval

Travis County, TX

Status: Located

Year Established: 1887

Council of Governments: CAPCOG

Public History: The community of Duval, slightly west of Waters Park, is noted in the Handbook of Texas Online as a farming community established in 1875 along the International-Great Northern Railroad. … Rubin Hancock and his wife Elizabeth were slaves of Austin’s Judge John Hancock.130 Judge Hancock owned a large farm north of Austin in the area of today’s Rosedale, near Burnet Road and 45th Street, as well as 21 slaves.131 Sometime after emancipation, former slave Rubin Hancock and his three brothers acquired land in north Travis County. They were some of the earliest emancipated slaves to own their farms rather than rent the land as tenant sharecroppers, establishing an early freedmen community in this area. … The community was centered around St. Stephen’s Missionary Baptist Church, which provided social, religious, and educational instruction. Elizabeth Hancock died in 1899, and Rubin remained on the land until his death in 1916.135 Three of their daughters maintained the farm until 1942.

Travis County Historical Association’s African American Settlements Survey (2016)
Travis County (Tex.). Clerk’s Office. Travis County Clerk Records: Road Book Precinct 2, 1898/1902. p. 256. https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth713044/m1/22/. Accessed August 12, 2016. University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Travis County Clerk’s Office.
“Rubin Hancock Farmstead.” Texas Beyond History. The University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts. http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/rubin/.

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