Fredericksburg
Texas Hill Country Lodging: Premier B&B near Fredericksburg Texas
While in the Hill Country check out Knot in the Loop
Saloon, Willow City, Texas
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The Mason County Hoodoo Wars
Part 1 / Part
2
by Glenn Hadeler
"Hoodoo": It’s an old an old term for bad luck or what brings it, and in
1875 Mason County had plenty of both. People would bolt their doors and post guards for
fear of what might come with the next day; but, this terror was not wrought from the usual
frontier threat of Comanche raiders or wild beasts, those had been subdued for some time.
No, this fear was of their own neighbors, and perhaps even one time friends. So bitter
were the passions that spawned this strife that it even divided the Texas Ranger Company
sent to quell the bloody affair.
The Bowie Mine: A
Literature Review by Bill
Townsley
The search for the legendary Lost Bowie Mine has been the topic of conversation and
controversy for over a century and a half. Today, treasure hunters mine the sources in
history to narrow the search.
The Jaybird-Woodpecker War of Fort
Bend County by Gary Brown
The story of the short, violent and infamous war in 1888-1889 resulting from local
antagonisms following Reconstruction. It crossed racial, political and social lines.
And it was very violent. [This is posted as four jpg images in its
original format. With a slow connection it could take some time to download.]
Cowhand From Llano
An Old-timers Account of Youthful Experiences in Cow Country
by ERNEST TURBIVILLE
"When I was a boy in Llano
County, Texas, horses occupied the important place in the scheme of things that
automobiles now do. In the cow country we were entirely dependent on horses. A man had to
be mounted to take his place among men."
The History of Blanco
County Part 1
The History of Blanco County
Part 2
by Jean Cox Stanley
There are a number of histories written of Blanco County. My purpose in writing this short
one is to pass on my knowledge and feelings about the county of my birth. It is my hope
that if this history is read by family members they will see it as the story of not just
any pioneers, but that of our ancestors. You will find that some of our physical
characteristics, vocabulary and speech patterns, as well as some of our strengths and
weaknesses come from these early settlers
The Woman at San Jacinto
by Gary Brown
Accounts following San Jacinto included reports of a court of inquiry after the battle and
subsequent civil lawsuit over allegations that one of Sam Houston’s senior officers
had been charged with the murder. But why would the death of one Mexican woman have been
so important as to lead to charges of cowardice and murder and countercharges of civil
libel?
INTO THE PAST WITH
CAPTAIN PERRY
INDIAN TROUBLE IN THE
EARLY DAYS:
by GLENN HADELER
In 1840 the land that would later
become Blanco County, was a desolate wilderness, some fifty miles west of the nearest
settlements. For the most part, it was in the
undisputed control of the Penateka Comanches and the other roving tribes of Native
Americans who drifted through the hills. These
nomadic people could not possibly understand the events that were about to change their
centuries old style of life. A three part story reprinted with permission from the Johnson
City Free Press.
BOWIE by STEVE GOODSON
Defender of the Alamo, pioneer leader, slave trader, land speculator, Indian fighter and
Prospector of lost mines. Who was this man?
Jim
Nichols by IRA KENNEDY
Jim Nichols vs a secesh, ring click, paper collar, kid glove gang of cyoties. A former
Texas Ranger faces up to the Confederates in Blanco County.
A
Scalping and a Vision
by Steven L. Yuhas
I found this story
while doing research on the life of
"Bigfoot Wallace". Wallace had stopped to spend the night at a cabin about
twelve miles above La Grange. A man wearing a fur hat came in and stood before the fire.
After a few minutes he removed his hat and bent over to warm his head. It was raw, red and
had some bone showing. In those days it was frontier custom not to ask questions of a
stranger, but Wallace’s curiosity got the best of him. "Excuse me for asking, but what happened to your head?"
COWHAND FROM
CLICK
by NORA MELTON CROSS
Henry Smith's boyhood and trail driving days.
Kings of the Texas Hills
The Elusive Chanas of the Llano Uplift by Jerry C. Drake
It is a tradition of popular folklore in the Texas Hill Country that the name of the Llano
River was derived from a little-known Indian tribe called the Chanas. Not
very much is known about the Chanas as a culture. Time has chosen to forget this once
proud people, leaving uswith only a few passing memories recorded in rare and ancient
texts. But the Chanas were very real... a living chapter of Texas history who's story
deserves to be told. Who were these elusive people, these former kings of the Texas Hills?
THE SCAB BUILDING by GARY BROWN
From the earliest days of the Republic of Texas until
statehood and even today, Texas has never hesitated to attempt what others considered the
impossible or controversial. Sitting at the head of Congress Avenue in Austin, the Texas
State Capitol represents one of those "impossible" stories. And while some would
say that in Texas nothing is impossible, it may also be true that nothing in Texas is
without controversy.
L' AFFAIRE
D' HOG
by C.F. ECKHARDT
Jean etcetera Dubois was born in 1809 in the French province
of Normandy. His daddy was Jean Baptiste Isidore Dubois, who was a tax collector for
Napoleon I, and his mamma was Marie Louise Rose Bertrand, who is rumored to have been the
daughter of a baker. Later, for his own reasons, he claimed to have been born on July 4,
1812, and identified his parents as Jean Theodore Dubois de Saligny and Rosalie Bertrand
de Broussillon.
THE PIG WAR by GARY BROWN
The French have not had good luck with animals in
Texas: a century earlier, they had nearly gone to war with Spain in east Texas over some
chickens. This flap was with the newly independent Texans and is commonly referred to as
the Pig War.
KRIEWITZ AND THE COMANCHES
by GLENN HADELER
The history of Texas’ frontier settlement is filled with tragic stories of whites who
had the misfortune of being held captive by the Comanche Indians, but so far as can be
determined there is only one episode where a person willingly gave himself into their
hands. This was the peculiar case of Emil von Kriewitz.
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SQUARE MAYS
AND THE SOW THAT MADE MISCHIEF
by C.F. ECKHARDT
They tell this story up around Wimberly. I’m not
sure what Squire Mays’ real name was, but his wife’s name was Aunt Polly. He
come to be called ‘Square’ Mays when, after he was elected Justice of the Peace,
he commenced to put on airs. He put up a sign that had his name on it, suffixed by
‘Esq.’ ‘Esq.’ is short for Esquire, which is usually abbreviated to
‘Squire’. However, up around Wimberly they decided to pronounce it
‘Square’ and Judge Mays became known as Square Mays forever more.
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The Texas
Cherokee
by IRA KENNEDY
 Woven into the fabric of personal
history is the image of the American Indian. When I was a child my grandmother revealed to
me, in a secretive voice, that I was of Cherokee-Irish descent; that my great-grandmother,
Sarah Jane Kelly, was a full-blood Texas Cherokee. The revelation filled me with
excitement and wonder. Only many years later did I realize that the secretive, almost
conspiratorial tone, was shaped by generations of fear, for in Sarah Jane’s day,
Indians were an undesirable element in Texas.
German Intellectuals on the
Texas Frontier by Ira
Kennedy
The Texas frontier of
the 1850s would seem an unlikely place to find communities with a passion for literature,
philosophy, music, and conversations in Latin. Just as unlikely would expectations be very
high for communes in the Hill Country attempting to establish utopia along the Llano
River. But, in this area, the communities of Castell, Schoenburg, Bettina, and
Leiningen were hotbeds for intellectual conversations and revolutionary social
experimentation. These communities were the first to settle the Fisher-Miller Grant
located between the Llano and San Saba Rivers
THE
ENCHANTED ROCK
AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY
by IRA KENNEDY
Sparsely scattered across the
continent are monuments, natural in origin. Some are beautiful, others bizarre; a few
reach deeper than the eye or the mind to touch the human psyche. They are named holy.
Enchanted Rock, which rises out of the surrounding landscape like a megalithic monument is
such a place.
THE
BLOODY HANDS
OF ALICE TODD
by Lemon Squeezer
"Away back in the early sixties when a Redskin lurked in every brushy hollow and when
men and women went horseback to church, often times fifteen miles away, when everybody
knew everybody else, and when everyone was a true neighbor -- it was then our story
began."
INGRAM'S
WALK ACROSS TEXAS
by STEVE GOODSON
So began one of the most incredible (and least known) adventures to have ever been
told; an eleven month trek across some 3,000 miles of wilderness. Only three of the
sailors survived to return to England, showing up in Cape Breton, off Nova Scotia in
September of 1569. The three sailors, Ingram, Richard Browne and Richard Twide, were
picked up by some French fishermen and returned to England in November of 1569.
MYSTERY OF THE
LADY IN BLUE
by C.F. ECKHARDT
The American southwest owes much of its Spanish
exploration and settlement to a woman. Texas owes the entire Spanish mission effort to
her. That woman, in her entire life, never left Spain. At least, she never left it
physically
MEDICINE
MAN HILL
by IRA
KENNEDY
Seeking legendary silver
mines in La Lomeria, or the Hill Country, a Spanish expedition led by don Bernardo
de Miranda, lieutenant-general of the province of Texas, set out from the presidio of San
Antonio de Bejar in February, 17, 1756. Known as the Miranda expedition, the twenty-three
adventurers were under orders from Governor Barrios to locate two silver mines rumored to
be in the area. Miranda did find one, known as Cerro del Almagre or the Hill of Red Ochre;
and in the process he came within sight of Cerro de Santiago or the Hill of the Sacred
One. At least one historian has suggested Cerro de Santiago might have been Enchanted
Rock, while others discount the possibility. The Hill of Red Ochre is believed by some to
be the Lost Bowie Mine.
THE OTHER HISTORY: The Smallpox Winter: 1839-1840 by IRA
KENNEDY
Epidemics of smallpox
were devastating the Plains tribes from Canada to mexico. This is an overview from Indian
Winter Counts.
The Republic of Texas
1845 - The Twilight
Year: Part 1 of 2 Parts.
by IRA KENNEDY
Rumors, gossip, lies and dreams. Conspiracies, intrigues, plots,
and counter plots. This must be the Republic of Texas. From 1830 to 1845, the eyes of the
world turned toward Texas. Stretching from the Rio Grande to Wyoming, and from Louisiana
to Santa Fe (New Mexico), Texas was enormous, and her potential to expand all the way to
the Pacific Ocean was under serious discussion.
The Beginning
of the End:
by IRA KENNEDY
Part 1 & 2 of 2 Parts
Lamar’s dream to mark ‘with
the sword" the western boundary of Texas at the Pacific Ocean was as foolhardy as it
was visionary. When Anson Jones ascended to the presidency of the Republic on the first
Monday of September, 1844, he sought to attain by treaty what was impossible with the
sword.
A View from the Presidency
by Anson Jones: The year 1843 dawned on Texas with
brightening prospects. A jealousy and rivalry began to exist between the U. States on the
one hand, and Great Britain and France on the other, in relation to Texas, which was daily
gaining strength, and it was not her policy to endeavor to abate or to suppress it…
THE RIVER OF LOST
IDENTITY: Phonetics Foiled the Real Name of Llano River by DALE FRY
Originally the name of the
Llano River was not "Llano" at all. Spanish explorers who discovered it
called it "Rio de los Chanas -- River of the Chanas-- after the Indians who inhabited
its banks, a simple and logica means by which to identify the stream.
The Lost San Saba
Mines Compiled and edited by IRA KENNEDY
Reprints from articles found in the San Saba News circa 1890: Since the 1700's,
stories of abandoned or lost Spanish mines and buried treasure in San Saba and adjacent
counties have fired the imaginations of thousands of treasure seekers. The following
items, from the San Saba News, convey well the excitement these stories generated
around the turn of the century.
The Mystery of Babyhead
Mountain
by Dale Fry
For over 100 years, the presence of Babyhead Mountain, a rugged hill
lying some nine and a half miles north of Llano, has given foreboding testimony to one of
the most gruesome—and controversial—incidents to have ever occurred in Llano
County. It was here that a search party discovered the dismembered body of a missing
child, her head impaled on a stick near the summit of the hill.
On the
Way to Enchanted Rock
by ANNIE SIMMS WALKER
A first-hand account from Texas history. "In
1860, at the home of my father, Captain J.M. Sims, in Lavaca County, I was married to
Joseph H. Walker of Llano County. He was young, handsome, and wealthy, and I was a very
young and happy bride. A short time after our marriage we moved to our home in Llano,
accompanied by my married sister and her husband. After a short stay they bade us farewell
and returned home."
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