Harmon Creek

Harmon Creek, a spring-fed perennial stream, rises three miles east of Huntsville in east central Walker County (at 30°42' N, 95°27' W) and flows north for sixteen miles to its mouth on Lake Livingston, near the Trinity county line (at 30°52' N, 95°24' W). The stream's source lies within the Sam Houston National Forest. It traverses gently rolling to nearly level terrain surfaced by sandy and loamy soils. Along the creek's banks grow woods of loblolly and shortleaf pine, sweetgum, black gum, elm, pecan, water oak, post oak, willow oak, and black hickory. Settlement in the vicinity began in the mid-1830s. Huntsville's Mount Pleasant Baptist Church conducted services on the creek banks from 1838 to 1844. After the Civil War an experimental freedmen's community, known as Grant's Colony, operated for many years on a large tract of land on the upper creek. The Arizona community has been on the east bank of the middle creek since the early 1900s. A state fish hatchery is on the west bank of the upper creek.  TSHA

Texas State Historical Association
https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/harmon-creek

Grant's Colony, also known as Harmony Settlement or Harmon Creek Settlement, is a historical, unincorporated African American community in central Walker County, Texas, established on a 6,000-acre parcel stretching across Harmon Creek, approximately five miles east of Huntsville.
Founded in 1866 by George Washington Grant, a local landowner who accumulated over 11,000 acres in Walker and Grimes Counties between 1856 and 1874, the settlement was influenced by the Church of Christ's philosophy—introduced to Grant by his wife Mary during the Civil War—which emphasized anti-slavery principles, education, and racial harmony.
It served as a model farming community and safe haven for freedmen during Reconstruction, with residents primarily working as tenants or sharecroppers growing cotton and corn, supported by a nearby mill and gin provided by Grant.
The site's coordinates are approximately 30.72185950 N, 95.49355370 W.
In 1867, Grant deeded two acres to a twelve-member board of trustees for community institutions, amid regional unrest including the Freedmen’s Bureau's enforcement of Reconstruction Acts.
In 1869, he recruited educators Edward, Hannah, and Sarah Williams from Mississippi to teach; they built the Colony Grove schoolhouse and instructed up to 120 students annually in primary subjects and music until 1878, after which Edward Williams— the first African American to earn a teaching certificate in Walker County—continued the work.
Literacy rates in the area rose from 16% in 1870 to over 66% by 1900.
By 1898, two public schools enrolled twenty-four Black students.
Institutions included Mount Moriah Methodist Church and Good Hope Baptist Church on the deeded land, as well as a Temperance Band.
The community featured Main Street and Church Street connected by a bridge over Harmon Creek.
The settlement peaked with around 350 residents and became a hub for African American politics and the Populist movement in the 1870s and 1880s, hosting Union Labor Party conventions and Walker County Farmer’s Alliance meetings.
Resident Richard Williams served as the first African American state legislator from the region (representing Walker, Madison, and Grimes Counties in 1870) and advocated for schools while opposing the convict lease system.
Despite challenges like the 1867 Yellow Fever outbreak, 1870-71 Walker County Rebellion, and 1876 public school defunding, the colony represented economic independence and progress amid Reconstruction-era violence.
Grant died in 1889, and in 1900, creditor Sallie Mae Gibbs purchased most of the land, continuing to lease it to tenants, which led to a loss of political influence.
By the 1930s, churches, the schoolhouse, and bridge were destroyed or relocated; in 1936, the U.S. Forest Service acquired the Gibbs acreage for the Sam Houston National Forest.
No population estimates, businesses, post office, or incorporation were ever recorded, and today, remnants are limited to Grant's Colony Cemetery, fading ruts of Main and Church Streets, and a few pillars in Harmon Creek.
The area is now forested with no active community structures.