Highmountain
Hero Member
This started out on the NM forum answering Dave 45, but I meandered so long it got so long I think it probably ought to be on the Texas forum:
Quote from: Dave45 on Today at 04:49:28 AM
Hey Jack
Im in central Texas.
Thanks Dave
Hi Dave. I haven't done much in Texas since 1992, but I used to do a lot of bouncing around there. Anything I post might be long out of date for one reason or another. But I'll give it some thought and if I come up with anything I think might still be out in the country I'll post it to the Texas forum. Some things do come to mind out toward Goldthwaite, Lampasas, and up south of Fort Hood, but the country was growing so fast then there's no telling what it's like now.
Last time I was through there the old Kinney Fort site on Brushy Creek was still vacant of houses and I don't think it had ever been MDed. That's where the 'Archives War' took place, and it was the final gathering site for the Texan Santa Fe Expedition of 1841. They spent a couple of months there. The Webster Massacre site between FM 2243 and the pavement, if it hasn't all eroded away, might also still turn a thing or two. It was always so grown over it would have taken a determined MD guy to work it.
The Webster party headed north when Austin was still Waterloo and the Pentakas hit them as they crossed Brushy, had hair teeth and eyeballs scattered all over from the Creek north almost a quarter-mile. You ought to be able to spot the crossing site by a cemetary about 100 yards north of the road, looked as though they were building a warehouse or something on the west boundary last time I was through. The cemetary had a mass-grave [relatively small one, considering] with what they could find of 27 people in it from the Webster party.
I only found it once and never got around to nosing around it, but Captain Cal Putnam had a blockhouse fort out toward Liberty Hill in the earlies, right in the middle of Penateka country. I looked for it for years but it was only toward the time I was packing up to leave the area someone told me where it was. Can't recall the location.
There's a book about the history of Williamson County was written by the lady owned the Williamson County Sun that was good and had a lot of info, but I don't know whether the Sun still exists and I'm reasonably sure the lady's dead by now [Edit: Scarborough was her name, I recall now].
As I recall there was a massacre, or fight on Bird's Creek over toward Three Rivers, also something to do with some possible treasure up north of the San Gabriel north fork... spy named Flores during the Republic years. Middle Fork, or maybe the North Fork had ancient animal tracks going up the bottom all over the place, but they might've washed away by now.
One of those towns off to the east, I'll have to think on it to remember the name, had a Civil War prison camp that was a big one. Also had a major plague of cholera and the cemetary was worth spending some time just reading the gravestones. Name of the town might have started with a G, over toward Cameron or somewhere headed toward Bryan from that little town 10 miles north of Taylor name slips my mind. If I can recall any details I'll post them on the Texas forum.
There's a cemetary down near Centerville or Centerpoint with about 100 Texas Rangers buried in it out in the middle of nowhere that's interesting for getting names from so's to chase down who they were and what all they did.
But you might want to go to the Archives and try to get copies of the daily marching orders for the Texan Santa Fe Expedition of 1841. [That entire folder has a lot of interesting info in it] I used those, along with a master thesis from the 1920s or 1930s by hmmm name slips my mind, but he was head of the UT History Department during the Dobie times, thesis "The Route of The Texan-Santa Fe Expedition of 1841" [He lied here and there but nobody caught him at it ..... In those days the thesis was housed in Perry Castenada] .... to follow the route and examine the campsites I could find all the way from Kinney Fort to the surrender sites in New Mexico when I was writing Hell Bent for Santa Fe. The expedition only made about 12 miles a day on average, so there are a LOT of campsites. [North to Mankins Crossing on the San G, north to Three Rivers, north almost through now Waco to China Springs, crossed the Brazos up by Granbury, major problems in the Cross Timbers country, west through Holliday and onward west ... those guys lost a lot of gear along the route and had lots of problems with Indians and not having anything to eat and a drunken commander and mutiny out near Turkey Creek and Roaring Springs]
Haven't thought about all that in a long time. Sorry I can't help more. [If you narrow down where you are a bit some other stuff might come to mind]
Jack
Quote from: Dave45 on Today at 04:49:28 AM
Hey Jack
Im in central Texas.
Thanks Dave
Hi Dave. I haven't done much in Texas since 1992, but I used to do a lot of bouncing around there. Anything I post might be long out of date for one reason or another. But I'll give it some thought and if I come up with anything I think might still be out in the country I'll post it to the Texas forum. Some things do come to mind out toward Goldthwaite, Lampasas, and up south of Fort Hood, but the country was growing so fast then there's no telling what it's like now.
Last time I was through there the old Kinney Fort site on Brushy Creek was still vacant of houses and I don't think it had ever been MDed. That's where the 'Archives War' took place, and it was the final gathering site for the Texan Santa Fe Expedition of 1841. They spent a couple of months there. The Webster Massacre site between FM 2243 and the pavement, if it hasn't all eroded away, might also still turn a thing or two. It was always so grown over it would have taken a determined MD guy to work it.
The Webster party headed north when Austin was still Waterloo and the Pentakas hit them as they crossed Brushy, had hair teeth and eyeballs scattered all over from the Creek north almost a quarter-mile. You ought to be able to spot the crossing site by a cemetary about 100 yards north of the road, looked as though they were building a warehouse or something on the west boundary last time I was through. The cemetary had a mass-grave [relatively small one, considering] with what they could find of 27 people in it from the Webster party.
I only found it once and never got around to nosing around it, but Captain Cal Putnam had a blockhouse fort out toward Liberty Hill in the earlies, right in the middle of Penateka country. I looked for it for years but it was only toward the time I was packing up to leave the area someone told me where it was. Can't recall the location.
There's a book about the history of Williamson County was written by the lady owned the Williamson County Sun that was good and had a lot of info, but I don't know whether the Sun still exists and I'm reasonably sure the lady's dead by now [Edit: Scarborough was her name, I recall now].
As I recall there was a massacre, or fight on Bird's Creek over toward Three Rivers, also something to do with some possible treasure up north of the San Gabriel north fork... spy named Flores during the Republic years. Middle Fork, or maybe the North Fork had ancient animal tracks going up the bottom all over the place, but they might've washed away by now.
One of those towns off to the east, I'll have to think on it to remember the name, had a Civil War prison camp that was a big one. Also had a major plague of cholera and the cemetary was worth spending some time just reading the gravestones. Name of the town might have started with a G, over toward Cameron or somewhere headed toward Bryan from that little town 10 miles north of Taylor name slips my mind. If I can recall any details I'll post them on the Texas forum.
There's a cemetary down near Centerville or Centerpoint with about 100 Texas Rangers buried in it out in the middle of nowhere that's interesting for getting names from so's to chase down who they were and what all they did.
But you might want to go to the Archives and try to get copies of the daily marching orders for the Texan Santa Fe Expedition of 1841. [That entire folder has a lot of interesting info in it] I used those, along with a master thesis from the 1920s or 1930s by hmmm name slips my mind, but he was head of the UT History Department during the Dobie times, thesis "The Route of The Texan-Santa Fe Expedition of 1841" [He lied here and there but nobody caught him at it ..... In those days the thesis was housed in Perry Castenada] .... to follow the route and examine the campsites I could find all the way from Kinney Fort to the surrender sites in New Mexico when I was writing Hell Bent for Santa Fe. The expedition only made about 12 miles a day on average, so there are a LOT of campsites. [North to Mankins Crossing on the San G, north to Three Rivers, north almost through now Waco to China Springs, crossed the Brazos up by Granbury, major problems in the Cross Timbers country, west through Holliday and onward west ... those guys lost a lot of gear along the route and had lots of problems with Indians and not having anything to eat and a drunken commander and mutiny out near Turkey Creek and Roaring Springs]
Haven't thought about all that in a long time. Sorry I can't help more. [If you narrow down where you are a bit some other stuff might come to mind]
Jack
