Texas Almanac, 1859 Page: 177
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DESCRIPTION OF COUNTIES. If
bears and civit cats; also, geese, ducks, wild turkeys, larks, black-birds, &c.
Of fish, we have the cat, buffalo, carp, trout, perch, sucker, &c. Our creeks
are Honey, Oatman's, Big Sandy, Hickory, San Fernando, Buffalo, Pecan, and
Llano and Little Llano rivers, and the Colorado bounds this county on the
Northeast. We have some traces of lead and iron ores, and gold is found in very
fine particles in the sand, but not enough to make mining profitable. Our
mountains abound in limestone and marble of a bluish cast, and good judges
say it is of a good quality. We have some petrifactions of wood, in which the
grain and leaves are very plainly visible. This county is generally undulating
in its surface, and sometimes mountainous. Granite, quartz, talc chist, slates,
sand-stone, and all the rocks of the primary and secondary formations, are
abundant. Llano was organized in 1856, being taken from Gillespie and Bexar.
Its markets are the military posts, and Houston and Port Lavaca. Our exports
are beef cattle, hides, peltry, honey and pecans; and we import flour, groceries,
and merchandise generally. We transport to Houston, by wagon, two hundred
and fifty miles, and to Port Lavaca two hundred miles, at a cost of one dollar
and fifty cents per hundred weight. The people here generally look to Austin
as their future market, when the road from Galveston and the Fulton road shall
reach that place. This county is fast settling unp, the emigration coming in
chiefly by way of Red River. The net average increase of cattle is about
sixty-two and one-half per cent annually. Our stock range is good summer
and winter, the chief grass being mezquit. Our lumber is scarce; pine is worth
five dollars, and our cypress four dollars per one hundred feet, one hundred
miles. We have stone, and all the material for concrete building, in abundance.
Our fences are made of post oak, mountain cedar and stone. The surface of
this county is about two-thirds prairie, and the rest is covered with timber.
Springs are tolerably abundant, and these, with our rivers and creeks, afford
our drinking water, which is quite wholesome, though slightly impregnated
with lime. We have some Chalybeate Springs. Stock water is abundant, and
the health of the county is good. The diseases, most common, are typhoid
fever, pneumonia, and malarions diseases. The Spring and Fall months are the
seasons of our chief rains, and the summer, of our droughts. Our heaviest
dews are usually in wet seasons. The average temperature, in summer, is
eighty-five degrees, and in winter forty degrees. The cold is here sufficient to
kill most vegetation in winter; and we sometimes have snow and ice, but to a
limited extent. We have but few slaves, as they do not pay well here, but our
inhabitants are in favor of the institution. The Tndians give us very little
trouble, of late years.
LAMPASA.
[Furni-hed by H. R. ]
Lampasas county was settled at the Lampasas Sulphur Springs, by MIr. Moses
Hughes, in 1853. Having learned of these Springs, he came, seeking relief for
his lady, her disease being dropsy. She soon become hearty, and from the time
that it became known, hundreds ficcked to this paice, seeking relief' from their
infirmities.
In 1854, corn was planted and raised in McAndley s Bend, twenty miles above
the Springs; with that exception, there was no set:ement in the county until
the winter of 1854 and 1855. During that winter and the ensuing spring, many
settled in the territory, now the county of Lampasas ; but, unfortunately, no
corn was raised ; the drought was so severe that the farmers failed to raise bread.
Nothing disheartened, they renewed their exertions in 1856, but were again
doomed to disappointment. The land, in this county, is not of the first quality,
though it is the best kind of the second qu it y-that is, it is not as rich as our
best river bottoms, but is as good as any other
This county is very broken, and, at first view, one would think not much
suitable for cultivation.
From the experiments already made, we think that our soil is equal to any,
and that we can compete with any, no matter what their soil and climate may
be, in the culture of wheat, the climate and soil being peculiarly adapted to its
growth and maturity. Cotton matures and yields finely here. Oats and rye
have been grown with much profit, giving a very large yield. The common
millet does well. The Chinese Millett, or Sugar Cane, has rendered entire sab-
isfaction to all those who planted it. In 1856, Col. Dnnn received a small paper
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Texas Almanac, 1859, book, 1859~; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth123765/m1/178/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.