The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 102, July 1998 - April, 1999 Page: 64

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

January 1860 I left Camp Giles in Travis County with fifteen men, and proceeded
direct to Fredericksburg where I saw a german (sic) who had been wounded with
an arrow, and where I learned many particulars of Indian depredations in that
vicinity. I was also informed that a Mr. Riley who resides near Fredericksburg,
had followed the depredators, who passed ten miles west of Fort Mason; at which
place he was reinforced with thirteen regular troop, and continued his pursuit.
This command was ten days ahead of me. Consequently I deemed it unnecessary
to follow them and directed my course to Doss's Mill, a distance of twenty two
miles from Fredericksburg where I heard of other horses, having been stolen,
but the thieves had left some eight days prior to my arrival. From this point we
proceeded to James River2 . . [The last of the Indian depredations in Mason
County reported in this volume was 1876.]
The main house has a good-sized room with a large fireplace at one
end, a combined kitchen and dining room, and bedrooms, some of
which may have been added in later years to the original structure. The
house must be larger than is at first apparent to me, as two or even three
bedrooms are needed to accommodate the Greens and the Hogans with
their child. In the rear of the ranch house is a long wooden porch over-
looking a small, spring-fed stream with stone spring-house, which drains
into a nearby slightly larger stream that eventually empties into the
James River. Across the small stream is a barn and several fenced pens,
corrals, and sheds. On the house side of the stream, and separated from
the house by a hundred yards or so, is a shed with saddle-and-tack room
and an adjacent, open shed used for blacksmith work. At the end of the
house opposite from the saddle shed, and again separated from the
house by a hundred yards, is the wood-frame bunkhouse for the hired
hands. In front of the house is a four- to five-acre field, enclosed by a
well-built fieldstone fence, two feet thick by four to five feet high; also
enclosed in this small pasture are the ruins of a small stone house or
barn that was built in the early days of the ranch.
The ranch is located in the Edwards Plateau area of Texas which is
known for its excellent grazing, strong grasses, and minerals that make
healthy cattle and horses with strong bones. This grazing land will sup-
port about one mother cow for each fifteen acres without any additional
feeding, unless there is severe drought, as compared to ranch land in
West Texas that will only support a cow to each twenty-five to thirty
acres. Although there are some fairly level stretches in the hilly, rolling
land, there are many rock-strewn slopes and dry ravines that help ex-
plain the surefootedness of the ranch-bred horses. As rocky as the land
is, there seems to be plenty of grass for the livestock. During the summer
Austin: Texas State Library, 1959-1961), 13.
'Ibid.

July