History
Catherine McLauren
A victim of the last Indian raid in Frio Canyon, April 19, 1881. Mother of three small children, "Kate" McLauren was home with them and a neighbor boy, Allen Lease, when a Lipan Apache band started to plunder their house. Although shot with a bullet, she sent her six-year-old child, Maud, for help, but died shortly after her husband John's return that night.
History
Clark Family Cemetery
Newlyweds Joseph Hutchinson Clark (1857-1901) and Annie Susie Wilson (1869-1953) bought this land from Annie's father on April 2, 1887. On Christmas Eve, 1901, Joseph was killed in a wagon accident on a curve between here and Reagan Wells. According to family oral history, he had recently told his daugher of his wish to be buried at this site.
History
Cypress Creek Cemetery
Established in the 1870s, Cypress Creek Cemetery served a scattered community of pioneers along Cypress Creek in what was then Bandera County before the founding of nearby Leakey in Edwards County. The land on this site belonged to settler John Bunyan Stidham, Sr., whose son, John Bunyan Stidham, Jr., gave land for a school nearby. Legend surrounds this graveyard.
History
John Leakey
Tennessee native John Leakey (1824-1900) came to Texas in 1847, settling for a time in Henderson County where he was a brickmason and rancher. He and his wife Nancy (Patterson) moved to Uvalde County in 1852 near present day Sabinal. A desire to pursue other endeavors took him to the Frio Canyon where there was an abundance of cypress timber.
History
Leakey Cemetery
Originally known as the Floral Cemetery and serving an earlier community by that name, this cemetery dates to at least 1881. Land for the graveyard was sold by John and Nancy Leakey for one dollar and a cemetery plot. The oldest documented burials here are those of Sara Catherine McLaurin (b.
History
Leakey School
Settlers arrived in the Leakey area, then part of Bandera County, in the mid-1850s. Many educated their children in their own homes, and early schoolhouses also existed near the John and Nancy Leakey home and at Brooks Springs. In 1883, the Leakeys deeded land near this site to John l. Avant, W.B. Burditt and J.B.
History
Lombardy Irrigation Ditch
Dug in 1868, in pick-and-shovel operation, by Lombardy Irrigation Company, whose officers were N. M. C. Patterson, W. F. Smith, and T. Watkins. Besides channeling water to irrigate over 800 acres, the 2-mile ditch furnished power for a cotton gin and shingle, grist, and flour mills. The settlement which grew up in the area was known as "The Ditch" until a post office was established in 1875.
History
Near Route of Famous Cattle Trail
One of many "feeder trails" in Texas that converged with the legendary Chisholm Trail above the Red River, this route directed thousands of longhorns to northern markets during the first year after the Civil War. Many local settlers took part in the drives, which lasted for months, and their tales are full of stampedes and Indian raids.
Military
Private Frank Marshall, C.S.A.
Buried here, 3/10 mi. from Camp Wood. A 29-year-old Harrison Countian, symbolizes Texans who died for the Confederacy in the Arizona-New Mexico campaign. Served from April 19, 1861, till death June 16, in W. P. Lane Rangers in second front stretched from San Antonio to Santa Fe. Frontier posts at Camp Wood, Ft. Inge, Ft. Clark, Camp Hudson, Howard Spring and Ft.
History
Real County
The location of Real County lies at the southern edge of the Edwards Plateau along the Balcones Escarpment, an area of rugged mountains and canyons named for the Frio, Sabinal and Nueces rivers. The county line between Edwards County and Bandera County ran directly through the center of a settlement in the Frio Canyon later called Leakey.
History
Real County
Located on the Edwards Plateau, Real County is in an area of rolling terrain broken by the canyons of the Frio River. Because of raids by Comanche, Apache, and Lipan Apache Indians, white settlement was hindered until after 1881. Mission San Lorenzo de La Santa Cruz was founded by the Spanish in 1762 near present Camp Wood.
History
Real County Courthouse
Leakey was the county seat of Edwards County from 1883 to 1891 when a vote moved the seat to Rocksprings. Real County, named for businessman and State Senator Julius Real, was organized from parts of Edwards, Kerr and Bandera counties in April 1913. Leakey was named the county seat and a temporary building was erected on the square.
History
Site of Camp Wood
Established May 20, 1857, as a means of preventing Indian raids on the San Antonio - El Paso route and the Rio Grande Valley. Abandoned March 15, 1861, when Federal troops were withdrawn from Texas.
History
Site of McLaurin Massacre
Site Of McLaurin Massacre (Last Indian Raid in Frio Canyon) On April 19, 1881, Catherine "Kate" Ringer McLaurin (sometimes McLauren) was with her three small children and 14-year-old Allen Lease in the garden when a band of Lipan Apaches started to plunder her home. Lease, thinking there were pigs in the house, went to investigate the noise and was shot and killed.
History
Vance Cemetery
One of the earliest settlers of this area was Henry Wells (1850-1923), who first came to the Nueces Canyon in 1866. He founded the town of Bullhead in 1873. The name was changed to Vance in the mid-1880s. In 1875 a guest in the home of the Wells Family, C. J. Fowler, died and was buried on the family's farm. The land surrounding Fowler's grave became known as Vance Cemetery.
Elsewhere in Texas
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