This post is part of our blog series “Scholars Speak,” which features writing from our 2024 cohort of Preservation Scholars. Click the link to learn more about this donor-funded program that aims to increase the diversity of voices in the Texas historical narrative by placing students from underrepresented cultural and ethnic backgrounds in paid, 10-week long summer internship positions at the Texas Historical Commission.
Scholars Speak: Down the River – A Story Unfolds
As a Preservation Scholar in the Archeology Division of the Texas Historical Commission (THC), I am currently working on the State Waterway Archeological Mapping Project. This project, continuing the work of a previous Preservation Scholar, geospatially locates often forgotten ferries and ferry crossings in Texas. These ferries carried La Salle’s expedition across the Guadalupe while others were sites of military reconnaissance in the Texas Revolution.
One of these was Webber’s Ferry on the Colorado River, which I got to see firsthand. John and Silvia Webber, for whom Webberville is named, established this ferry. Likely the first interracial family settled in Travis County, details of John and Silvia Webber’s lives and ferries have been lost to time, yet learning about them reveals a compelling story of perseverance.
The story begins when Silvia Webber was brought to Texas by her enslaver John Cryer in 1826. There, she met John Webber, who Cryer conducted business with. Webber supposedly became infatuated immediately with Silvia. John and Silvia’s first three children were born while Silvia was still enslaved. Webber secured freedom papers for Silvia and their three children in 1834. However, this was not without challenge. Cryer initially demanded the exchange of two slave children for the freedom papers. The Webbers refused and instead ceded much of his land in order to appease Cryer.
Despite setbacks, John and Silvia established a trading business and Webber’s Ferry on the Colorado River. Historians speculate that this ferry may have shuttled slaves seeking freedom along the Southern Underground Railroad.
Following my research on the Webbers, I had the opportunity to conduct a site visit to what is most likely Webber’s Ferry along with the THC Archeology Division Director and State Archeologist Brad Jones, State Marine Archeologist Amy Borgens, my Preservation Scholars cohort-mate Arian Perez, and Bob Walden of the Travis County Historical Commission. There, I met a descendant of John Webber and the property owners of the site.
Under the heat of the summer sun, Webber’s descendant guided us to where a cable wraps around the bank marking the ferry launch. Corroded poles stuck out of ground where ships would have docked before crossing. Further up, the property owners pointed out a dip in the earth where the ferry would wait while people boarded, and cargo was brought on board. Webber’s descendant informed me that most of the area was covered in litter before he and others cleaned it up. Webber’s descendant spoke of the John and Silvia as if they were old friends, referring to Silvia Webber as “Puss.”
The unassuming strip of the Colorado that hosted the ferry holds the Webber’s story. Much of this information would have been forgotten if not for the tireless work of Webber’s descendants and community who supported historic archeological efforts. The importance of historic preservation by individuals and community members is something I have come to understand during this internship.
I’ve also realized that history is not beheld only by professional historians, nor is it ever complete. With the extensiveness of the internet, we might mistakenly believe that we have already uncovered all there is to know, yet our narratives of the past are constantly shifting through the discovery of new stories and the voices of vocational historians. Therefore, history is an ongoing process from which we have much to learn from.