Greenbriar Road

March 14, 2022

This post is out of sequence. I didn’t feel like documenting this trip at the time, as it was the anniversary of Patrick’s death and we had just visited his grave. As a result, I didn’t take a lot of notes.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Kristi and I didn’t feel like going directly home. We stopped off in Madisonville for lunch and talked about driving around randomly for a little while to see what we might see. At least it would be a distraction.

We drove up Greenbriar Road, which starts on the north side of Madisonville and ends at the Old San Antonio Road near the town of Leona.

Much of the first portion of the road was not worth looking at. What little scenery exists along the first several miles is spoiled by trash along the side of the road and in the creeks. The people living here don’t seem to care what their homes and land looks like.

I wasn’t able to find any information about the road in general, but according to a historical marker at the Greenbrier Cemetery, it appears that there was a community named Greenbrier or Greenbriar located in the area from the mid-1880s until about 1940.

We walked through the cemetery and looked at the gravesites. There were quite a few markers from the 1800s. After exploring, we continued north on Greenbriar Road.

A long stretch of the road runs within sight of Interstate 45. There are several large pastures in this section that are apparently part of the same ranch. The cleanliness of the road improved significantly from that point on.

Greenbriar Road meets up with Parker Lane. Greer Cemetery sits at this intersection. Unlike Greenbrier Cemetery, Greer is not labeled on Google Maps. It appears to be a newer cemetery, at least compared to Greenbrier. It was a very sad place to us. There were a lot of recent burials. Kristi knew one of them.

A few early flowers were popping up here-and-there. Spring felt late this year, so it was nice to at least see some color in this dreary place.

We left Greer Cemetery and continued along Greenbriar Road. It ended at the Old San Antonio Road.

The Old San Antonio Road (OSR) follows the route blazed by Spanish explorers in the 1690s. It was the first major road created in Texas and served an important role in servicing Spanish missions, and as a major route for trade and the military. More information on the OSR can be found at the Texas State Historical Society’s Handbook of Texas.

I’m sorry that there was not much to report on this trip. There were a few pretty places, but really not much of interest to see. I don’t think we will be re-exploring this road in the future.