The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 52, July 1948 - April, 1949 Page: 379
512 p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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THE SOUTHWESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
VOL. LII APRIL, 1949 No. 4
l 4asoa County, rexas, 1845-1870
MARGARET BIERSCHWALE
M ASON COUNTY, TEXAS, in 1845 was, no doubt, a land
where numerous streams watered wild game and In-
dians, where hills and vales fed their own production.
After a rain, the country was verdant with grass and under-
growth, shaded by oak trees, native pecans, and mesquites, nat-
urally landscaped in wild myrtle bowered with bloom. The soil
then, as now, varied from limestone in the central portion to
rich, red-filled earth in the south. Sandstone abounded along
with pockets of granite, mountain-like rocks, springs flowing
uncharted and unmolested, wild fern and flowers in profusion;
the land was wild and fertile.
The history of the county falls into three divisions: the county
settlements, the fort, and the town. Each has become an insep-
arable part of the others. There is no tangible way of turning
backward now except through records, histories, and verbal recol-
lections. No definite record has been found of the first person
who saw any portion of the present Mason County. It is said that
a man named Billy Cox, who came in from the northeast, may
have been the first resident of Mason.' A man by the name of
Blaylock moved to the county when the first families began the
overflow from Gillespie County,2 but the day of his entering
Mason is not known. There is reason to believe that there were
some persons living in the area as early as 1845 and that there
were settlers established when the drift of German Immigration
Company colonists came from Fredericksburg as early as 1847.
The German Immigration Company, first organized in Ger-
Frontier Times (Bandera, Texas), January, 1929, p. 161.
2Don Biggers Papers, Mason Chamber of Commerce, n. d.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 52, July 1948 - April, 1949, periodical, 1949; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101121/m1/388/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.