In Texas during the Civil War, county commissioners courts usually furnished enlisting soldiers with uniforms, guns, blankets, and sometimes horses, while also aiding dependents, war orphans, and widows, and recognizing local residents who operated soldiers' homes where men traveling to and from the army on furloughs and special missions received meals that were later reimbursed. Freestone County had at least 11 such homes, and near this site one of two in Butler was run by plantation owner Hillary Manning. These homes were usually established as acts of neighborliness. The Rev. Thomas Castleton, who lived near Houston, organized many of them and praised the people of Butler, Fairfield, Golaid, and Hillsboro for creating soldiers' homes on their own initiative. At Christmas in 1864, for the soldiers' benefit, he received donations of $100 in gold, three beef animals, and two milch cows from private citizens, and he was also given a three-story brick hotel to use as a soldiers' home. Other soldiers' homes operated at Columbus, Crockett, Palestine, and Richmond in Fort Bend County, and together with many other voluntary productive activities they showed Texas's concern for its men.