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Travis County Archeological Society
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Welcome to the Travis County Archeological Society!
Our next regular meeting will be Thursday, February 9th, 2012 at 7pm. Meetings are currently held at Nuevo Leon's downtown location, 1501 E. 6th Street. Meetings are held the second Thursday of each month, except June and December. They are free and open to the public. For those who wish to come early, we gather around 5:45 PM for dinner, drinks, and fellowship. We pay for our own meals and for that of the guest speaker. The short business meeting starts at 7:00 PM, followed by the guest speaker's presentation.
The February program will feature Jim Woodrick, speaking on
Bernardo Plantation
James V. Woodrick, the Project Historian for the Bernardo Plantation Archaeology Project in Waller County, has written a book (Bernardo, Crossroads, Social Center and Agricultural Showcase of Texas) that tells the story of Jared E. Groce III (1782-1836), his family, and the plantation that he established in 1822 on a crossing of the Brazos River near Hempstead. Groce was one of the Old Three Hundred settlers of Stephen F. Austin's colony. He and his heirs built Bernardo, Groce's Retreat, Pleasant Hill, Eagle Island, and Liendo. The book follows the site's history from its inception in 1822 through the Republic of Texas, the Civil War, abolition of slavery, and its subsequent demise without enslaved labor. The Groce Family Plantations Historical Marker notes, "A contribution of the family to the cause of Texas freedom was providing rations and ferry service to army of Gen. Houston on eve of San Jacinto victory. Descendants have contributed leadership to the state."
James Victor Woodrick was raised in Austin County, Texas, attended Bellville schools, and graduated from high school in 1961. During the next five years he attended The University of Texas at Austin, married Frances Bravenec of Austin County, and graduated with a Master of Science degree in Chemical Engineering.
During a 28-year career with DuPont, Jim held positions in technology, operations, business and manufacturing management in Victoria, Alvin, Houston, and Orange, Texas, and in Wilmington, North Carolina and Wilmington, Delaware. He served eight years as Plant Manager at DuPont's facilities at Chocolate Bayou (Alvin) and Sabine River Works (Orange). After DuPont Jim served for ten years as President of Texas Chemical Council, the trade association in Austin representing the Texas chemical industry.
His interest in Texas history began as a boy hunting for arrowheads on his parents' farm on the old Coushatta trace, only a few miles from San Felipe and the former Bernardo plantation. Family and school trips to the San Jacinto Monument, the Alamo, and nearby Stephen F. Austin State Park provided additional foundation for a lifelong interest in history, especially that of Texas.
Jim has a continuing fascination with the descriptions of early travelers in Texas and the evolution of trails to roads to highways as the country became settled. He has published the story of his home county in 2007, "Austin County - Colonial Capital of Texas". "Elusive Dreams - Early Exploration and Colonization of the Upper Texas Coast" was sponsored and published by the Liberty County Historical Commission in 2009. He is one of the founders of the Bernardo Archaeology project and serves as Project Historian.
Jim and Frances have two daughters, Amy (Mrs. Scott) Stevens of Houston and Tracy (Mrs. A.W.) Armstrong, and two grandchildren, Jeb and Sadie Armstrong, who currently reside in Austin.
From Bernardo Plantation Archaeology Project.
If you are in the Austin area on one of our second-Thursday-of-the-month meeting nights, please drop in to see what's going on. More about our monthly meetings at http://travis.txarch.org/calendar.htm.
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