Mission Statement from Patrick Watson

Heritage Farms is proud to offer a part of our heritage for you to experience and remember. We have restored, refurbished, and refinished a part of Texas Hill Country history. We’ve also witnessed the loss that comes as generations divide the property and no longer work the land. Family heirlooms, tools, homes, land, and memories are lost or sold. Skills that were once needed are lost and no longer passed down. Heritage Farms is proud to have preserved as much of this heritage and history as we have, and we are happy to share with you what we have been blessed with.  Our goals are that your stay with us will leave you blessed. Our prayers are that you will cherish your stay at Heritage Farms, and that we might become a part of your heritage also.

Watson Family History

Following is a brief history of Hye, Texas and my home.

Hye is on Highway 290, 10 miles west of Johnson City, 3 miles east of the Lyndon B. Johnson National and State Historical Parks at Stonewall, and 20 miles east of Fredericksburg.  Hiram (“Hye”) G. Brown founded Hye in1880.   “Hye” Brown decided the area needed a post office so in January of 1886, he applied to the United States Post Office and on April 17, 1886, the Hye Post Office was established with “Hye” serving as Post Master.  (Some of the unique happenings at the Hye Post Office are: President Lyndon B. Johnson, at the age of four, mailed his first letter here.  Lawrence O’Brien was sworn into President Johnson’s Cabinet as Post Master General on the steps of the store in October 1965).

 “Hye” was born August 4, 1853, in Mississippi; he came to Texas about 1866.  “Hye” Brown married Margaret Steen and they had six children.  Their fifth child, Edna Pearl, married James “Phillip” Watson and they had two sons, James “Porter” Watson and John “Thomas” Watson.  (“Porter” and “Thomas” were both born in “The Homestead” cabin).  Porter Watson married Juneth Whitaker on July 3, 1947.  They had three children, Linda Lee (Sewell), Bonnie Lue (Jenschke), and James “Patrick”.  “Hye” Brown is Patrick’s great-grandfather.  Patrick has two children; his daughter, Chantel Rose who lives in Austin, and James “Paul” who currently lives on the property.

Stories of “Hye” Brown’s strictness have been handed down.  “Hye” Brown threatened to kill Phillip Watson if he married his daughter Edna.  The couple eloped and fled to New Mexico immediately after their marriage on August 14, 1916.  The journey by wagon took about a month.  The couple did not return to Blanco County until after “Hye’s” death in 1920. This is a true account, but no doubt rather mind boggling to our present day generations, especially since the bride was already past 30, and the groom close to 38 when they eloped.

No one is quite sure when The Homestead was built; it has been around as long as any of the old timers around here can remember, but “Hye” Brown registered his brand, the 4B, in Blanco County in 1880.  Margaret Brown (Hye’s wife) built Grandma’s Cabin in 1928 when she wanted to come out from Austin to visit her daughter, Edna (it was an all day trip from Austin to Hye in those days).  It has long been a dream of Patrick’s to restore the old homes (Grandma’s Cabin and The Homestead), as they are a unique part of his families’ heritage.