Published: August 04, 2008 10:58 am            

John Watson: Barnard’s Mill Art Museum a site to see

Charles Barnard built an Indian Trading Post on the Brazos River within sight of Comanche Peak in 1849.

When Johnson County was formed, Barnard’s Trading Post, also known as Barnardville, was in the original Johnson County. At the first election in the fall 1854, the Barnard Trading Post was a polling place for western Johnson County.

William Balch did not claim his land grant at the present site of Alvarado until 1851, so you could say that Barnardville, later known as Fort Spunky, was the oldest settlement in the original Johnson County.

After the government moved the Indians to Indian Territory in 1859, Charles Barnard moved to the Paluxy River in 1860 and built a three-story grist mill. The mill was built like a fort with gun ports on the third floor and walls three feet thick at the base to withstand Indian attacks.

The community that grew up around the mill was known as the Barnard’s Mill settlement and was a part of Johnson County. In 1866 Hood County was formed from the western half of Johnson County, and Barnard’s Mill became a part of Hood County.

Charles ran the mill until 1871, when he sold the mill to T.C. Jordan from Dallas for $65,000 and moved back to Barnardville. Because the Barnards were no longer connected with the mill, the name of the settlement was later changed to Glen Rose.

In 1875 Somervell County was formed from the southern half of Hood County, and Glen Rose was made the county seat. That made three different counties that Barnard’s Mill had been in.

For many years social events were held on the third floor of the mill.

The old mill building is much as it has always been, minus the mill wheel and milling equipment. The second-floor bedrooms are still furnished in period furnishings. In the large room on the ground floor, which was the milling room, you can see the huge ceiling joists.

They did not mill lumber for the joists, they just squared the logs, and therefore they have timbers that are about a 12 by 12 for the joists. No danger of that second story floor giving way.

Two items really caught my attention here. One was a square grand piano, and the other was an old pump organ operated by foot pedals.

Carolee Cates and Carly Payne were our tour guides through the old mill.

Several additions have been added over the past hundred years or so. A gin annex was erected in 1895.

More rooms were added to the front later, and these were used as a hospital from 1943 to 1971, known as the Snyder Sanitarium.

Twelve of the rooms that had once been used as part of the hospital now house the Barnard’s Mill Art Museum. Most of the items in the museum are from the collection of Richard H. Moore Jr. The collection includes both paintings and statuary.

Some of the artwork is by artists such as Jack Bryant, R. Kleinfelder, Morris Henry Hobbs and others.

One room features the work of Robert Summers, a Glen Rose native. Several of his Western pictures are featured along with miniatures of some of the statues he has done. One miniature is of a 150 percent life-size bronze statue of Coach Tom Landry, legendry coach of the Dallas Cowboys football team. This statue stands in front of Texas Stadium in Irving.

Another is a miniature of the nine foot tall bronze of John Wayne that now stands in front of the John Wayne Airport in Orange County, Calif.

In 1976 Robert Summers was named the Bicentennial Artist of Texas.

One room contains some oriental art, some painted directly on wood.

The room containing the Indian artifacts was very interesting. There was a display of flint arrowheads, spearheads and fish hooks. I had heard the Indians had used flint fish hooks, but these were the first I had seen.

As a Western art museum, I would rank it at the top of its class, along with the likes of the Amon G. Carter Museum of Art. It may not have as much as the Carter, but what it does have is all first class.

The Barnard’s Mill Art Museum is a facility owned and operated by the Jewell Miears Fielder Foundation Inc., a private corporation funded by the estate of Mrs. Fielder. The museum is open to the public on a regular basis free of charge.

The Mill is located on the bank of the Paluxy River at 307 S.W. Barnard St., a few blocks west of the courthouse. It is only open on weekends — Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from 1-5 p.m.

With the price of gasoline and everything else so high, it is very unusual to find any type of free entertainment. Rather than driving to Dallas or Fort Worth and paying high entrance fees to their museums, cruise on over to Glen Rose and visit the Barnard’s Mill Art Museum for free. While you are there take a tour of the old mill also.



John Watson is a Cleburne resident who can be reached at texastraveler@sbcglobal.net.

        

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