... a building for making soap and candles, a laundry, a building for offices, a kitchen, a grocery store, beehives, a chicken house, a smoke house, a forge, a cottage for the Executive Agent, and have begun the construction of two dormitories of eight apartments each, to be given to different households.[15] Three years later, in 1859, a visitor, after describing the general merchandise store, says, “Réunion contains a fine and commodious store-house, blacksmith shop, hotel, a bootmaker, tailor and mechanic’s shop. Coombs’ steam mill is only one mile distance from La Réunion.”[16] The same writer, in describing the store, said: We are indebted to the courteous and gentlemanly proprietor of the La Réunion store for a lot of choice cigars and a jar of delicious brandy pears. They have at La Réunion a well selected stock of new and fashionable goods, which they are prepared to sell at unreasonably low prices.[17] In 1919 a visitor surveying the ruins wrote: Some distance from this structure, possibly 200 yards, were the remains of a store and concrete building about thirty feet or more square which was the commissary for the colony; thick walls were still several feet high on the four sides. Between this ruin and the residence were outlines of old fence partitions preserved by indigenous shrubs, prickly pear, hoar hound, etc., with now and then a plum tree survival.[18] These buildings were constructed of wood and stone. Because of lack of knowledge concerning the climate, the colonists did not realize the necessity of good construction for protection against the “northers” and consequently suffered severely from the cold. When a sufficiently large group had settled at La Réunion, the people met to form a society which they called “The Society of Réunion.”[19] Objectives of this Society were: acquisition of the domains of La Réunion, Dallas County, the development of agriculture, the construction of industrial establishments, and the formation of a council for making public decisions. The operating or social fund of the society was fixed at $600,000 representing 4800 _actions_ at $125. The Society of Réunion was to act as a local office or clearing house for the business of the colony and to deal directly with the European Colonization Society of Texas. It was not to replace or to usurp the prerogatives of the parent society. In addition to possessions in the form of buildings, the Society put into cultivation 430 acres of land; purchased 500 head of cattle, some sheep, pigs, and fowls; dug wells, built a few short, shallow canals; bought mowing, reaping, and threshing machines; and secured two half-sections of land near the settlement. A very large garden was planted and developed, one that did not justify the funds invested but excited the curiosity of all who visited the colony.[20]