Germany

Germany is a farming community off State Highway 21, which runs along the route of the Old San Antonio Road, ten miles northeast of Crockett in east central Houston County. Around 1828 Jacob Masters, Sr., one of the earliest settlers in the vicinity, brought his family and slaves to this area by way of North Carolina, Kentucky, and Alabama. On October 30, 1834, Masters and his son, Jacob, Jr., petitioned for land under the Mexican colonization laws through empresario David G. Burnet, and on February 14, 1835, each received a league of land from the Mexican state of Coahuila and Texas. On December 30, 1841, Masters's son-in-law, Joseph Rice, obtained land in the county and built his home near the Old San Antonio Road. Joseph and Willie (Masters) Rice's home became known as the Rice Stagecoach Inn. In the late 1830s or early 1840s, Thomas Jesse Duren settled in the vicinity with his family and slaves. Legend has it that in 1865 the slaves from this area assembled at the old Cermark homestead site, a quarter mile from what is now the Germany Road, to hear the reading of the Emancipation Proclamation. The community name of Germany apparently originated from freedmen's references to a German family named Grounds (also spelled Grunt, Gront, Grount, Grundt, or Groundt), who had settled in the area between 1829 and 1833. The Grounds Cemetery is still in the area.

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.