History
Antlers Hotel
The juncture of the Llano and Colorado rivers has attracted visitors for millenia. European settlers, including Martin D. King, began moving to the area in the 19th century. King purchased land here in 1877, and it is for him that Kingsland is named.
History
Baby Head Cemetery
According to local oral tradition, the name Babyhead was given to the mountain in this area in the 1850s, when a small child was killed by Indians and its remains left on the mountain. A local creek also carried the name, and a pioneer community founded in the 1870s became known as Baby Head.
Architecture
Badu House
Built in 1891 during the city's iron production boom days, this structure originally housed the First National Bank of Llano. In 1898 it was purchased by French native N. J. "Professor" Badu, a noted local mineralogist, for use as a residence.
History
Bluffton Cemetery
Bluffton Cemetery This site was purchased in 1930 by the Emery, Peck and Rockwood Development Company and donated to the Bluffton Cemetery Association in anticipation of the company's construction of what would become Lake Buchanan. They provided the red sandstone for the cemetery's fence, portico and well structure. A number of local cemeteries were relocated here to make way for the dam.
History
C.S.A. Salt Works
Located between Tow Valley and Old Bluffton, 15 miles NE. Since 1935 under Lake Buchanan. During Civil War made salt for table, curing meat and hides, feeding cavalry horses. A day's boiling in 100 iron, 250-gallon kettles produced 20 to 30 bushels of salt. Cooled, sacked and hauled out, this met Texas' wartime shortages. First Llano County district court was held at salt works.
History
Castell School
Education for students in Castell may have begun as early as 1852, according to local oral tradition. Earliest written records indicate that the Llano County commissioners court designated the Castell School as District No. 6 in 1884, and land was deeded for the school's use six years later. Members of the community built a two-room schoolhouse, which was expanded to three classrooms in 1929.
History
Charles Haynes
(September 12, 1814 - December 29, 1868) Born in Vermont, Charles Haynes came to Texas in 1836 with the "Buckeye Rangers" of Ohio to fight for independence. He settled at Lockhart, operated a blacksmith shop, was a member of the first county commissioners' court, a justice of the peace, and a leader in Masonic work. About 1859 he moved with his family to Llano County.
History
Early Explorers in Llano County
By commission of the Governor of Spanish Texas, Bernardo de Miranda in 1756 examined Cerro del Almagre, a red ochre hill supposedly rich in silver. His party of 23 from San Antonio struck Honey Creek near here, then went to the junction of the Llano and Colorado rivers. Three pounds of ore from Cerro del Almagre assayed only ten ounces of silver to 100 pounds of ore.
History
Homesite of Emil Kriewitz
Arriving on the Texas coast from Potsdam, Germany, at the onset of the Mexican war in 1846, Emil Kriewitz began his Texas exploits by serving in the U.S. Army. He later was engaged by the Adelsverein to assist German settlement along the Llano River, an area then occupied by the Comanche Indians. At great personal risk, Emil lived with the Indians as a gesture of good will.
History
Isaac Byler Maxwell
Isaac Byler "Ike" Maxwell was born April 21, 1837, in Ripley, Tennessee to Isaac D. and Nancy Love Byler Maxwell. In 1844, after his mother died, his family moved to Bluffton, Arkansas. He moved from there to this area in 1854, naming the land Bluffton after his former home. After serving as a scout for frontier units during the Civil War, he was a justice of the peace for three terms.
History
Llano City Cemetery
Area residents founded the city of Llano as the county seat for newly-formed Llano County in 1856. By August 1862, with internment of one-year-old Tina Miller, this site served as a burial ground. Seventeen-year-old Emily Young Wright was interred here a few weeks later, and their two gravestones are the earliest marked burials.
Architecture
Llano County Courthouse
Designed by Austin architect A.O. Watson, this building is the fourth courthouse for Llano County. Work on the structure began in 1892 and was completed one year later. The contractors were J.A. and G.H. Wilson of Sulphur Springs. The courthouse was later surrounded by an iron fence, but only the stone foundations remain.
History
Lone Grove School
Lone Grove School Among the rural schools in early Llano County were Lone Grove, Flat Rock, Little Llano, McNutt and Spice Wood. These rural schools also served their communities as gathering places. Located on a major route between Llano and Burnet, Lone Grove grew, and when officials divided the county into districts in 1884, it became district number two.
History
Nine Miles West is the Enchanted Rock
From its summit, in the fall of 1841, Captain John C. Hays, while surrounded by Comanche Indians who cut him off from his ranging company, repulsed the whole band and inflicted upon them such heavy losses that they fled. Erected by the State of Texas 1936
History
Old Southern Hotel Building
J.W. Owen had this hotel building constructed about 1880. Stonemasons J.K. Finlay and John Goodman built the original two-story structure, which was a stagecoach stop. The third floor was added during the ownership of Col. W.A.H. Miller, who bought it in 1883. An annex was later added to the west side of the building, and an addition on the north served as dining hall and kitchen.
History
Packsaddle Mountain
Two and one half miles east on the Packsaddle Mountain, in a battle fought August 4, 1873, Captain J. R. Moss, Stephen B. Moss, William B. Moss, Eli Lloyd, Arch Martin, Pink Ayers, E. D. Harrington and Robert Brown routed a band of Indians thrice their number. The last Indian battle in this region.
History
Richmond Alexander McInnis
Mississippi native Richmond Alexander (R. A.) McInnis (1852-1922) moved to Llano as a young man in the 1870s. He owned and operated Llano Furniture Company on the town square, and served as Llano County sheriff from 1880 to 1882. McInnis married Martha Caroline Bozarth (1865-1949) in 1882. In 1892 McInnis was elected one of the first city aldermen in Llano.
Architecture
Robert F. Rowntree House
Early Llano County leader, Robert Flack (Bob) Rowntree (1847-1893), built this majestic two-story house in the Prairie Mountain community from 1875 to 1888. Scottish architect John K. Finlay, a pioneer in the Texas granite industry, designed the home using local red-brown sandstone obtained nearby and white limestone from Burnet County.
History
Valley Spring Cemetery
This hilltop cemetery has served the local community since 1867 when Martha Epperson Eaker and Hattie Phillips, daughters of pioneer settlers in the area, were buried here. Burials continued, and in 1877 the Epperson family donated land for the "benefit and convenience of San Fernando Valley.
Elsewhere in Texas
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