Pilot Knob

Travis County, TX

Status: Located

Year Established: 1871

Council of Governments: CAPCOG

Public History: Pilot Knob was a small settlement SE of Austin, TX. Research revealed in the county records a note hand written in the margins “colored settlement.” Newton Issac Collins first purchased land in 1871 from an estate liquidation near Manor, Texas. This land, about 200 acres, was held for a short period before he purchased 100+ acres in NE Austin in 1872. This land was purchased from the family of Henry Warnell, a defender of the Alamo, and was in a Freedman area near current day Manor rd. This improved 127 acres was traded for 506 acres of unimproved land at Pilot Knob in 1891. An adjacent large track was purchased by Dee Gabriel Collins in the early 1900’s. A significant portion of Pilot Knob is still owned by members of the Collins family. Recently a new elementary school in the area was named in honor of Newton Collins, a man twice enslaved. Newton was freed at an early age in Alabama by his slave owner father and taught to read/write and given training as a carpenter. A letter written by Silas Parsons, a former Supreme Court Justice in Alabama, and large land owner near Manor, Texas, mentioned Newton as a carpenter.

https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/pilot-knob-travis-county

Community History: Newton Isaac Collins Sr. (1826 – 1903) was an African-American freed formerly enslaved person from Alabama who moved to Travis County, Texas, in the 1850s, where he was re-enslaved by Silas Parsons (Alabama Supreme Court Justice). After Juneteenth, Collins again received his freedom and became a businessman, land owner and community leader in southeastern Travis County. Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton_Collins