Bear Creek Settlement
Junction, Kimble County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Started in 1850s by rancher Raleigh Gentry, who built a 2-room log house and cleared a small farm, but in 1862 sold out to cattlemen Rance Moore. 1860s settlers included Wm. and Lane Gibson, Charlie Jones, John New, A. J. Nixon, Billie Waites. Others came in 1870s after raids by Indians and outlaws were ended.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Bear Creek Settlement began in the 1850s when rancher Raleigh Gentry built a two-room log house and cleared a small farm, selling out to cattleman Rance Moore in 1862. A handful of hardy families settled here through the 1860s despite the dangers of the open frontier. Only after raids by Indians and outlaws were finally suppressed did new settlers arrive in greater numbers in the 1870s.
Why it matters
The settlement's fitful growth captures the hard reality of the Texas Hill Country frontier, where ranching families held on through raids and isolation until the land was made safe for permanent settlement.
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Related people
- · Raleigh Gentry
- · Rance Moore
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Morales Ranch
Junction, TX
Meliton Morales was born in Mexico in 1837, kidnapped by Indians as a youth and held captive for nine years before making his way to Texas in 1855. In 1874 he drove 200 Spanish goats and 2,000 sheep into Kimble County and, in 1881, built the small rock house that still stands, raising nine children and serving on the county's first jury. His remarkable life crossed borders, cultures, and the violent frontier to plant a ranching family whose descendants still hold the land.
Old Bear Creek Texas Ranger Camp
Junction, TX
Established in October 1877, the Old Bear Creek camp served as a patrol base for Company E of the Texas Rangers' Frontier Battalion, watching the Llano River country for Indians and outlaws. The region was a haven for cattle and horse thieves, but within weeks Lieutenant N. O. Reynolds and his thirty men had captured many; in 1878 they helped repel one of the area's last Indian raids. Their presence, maintained into the mid-1880s, opened Kimble and nearby counties to peaceful settlement.
The Killing of Sam Speer
Junction, TX
On Christmas Eve 1876, seventeen-year-old Sam Speer was killed by a band of Indians while driving horses near this spot, his brother's large-caliber rifle failing to fire in the moment. Recorded as the last such killing in Kimble County, the event marked the closing of an era of frontier conflict along the Llano; Speer rests in the North Llano Cemetery.
Isaac Kountz
Junction, TX
On Christmas Eve, 1876, sixteen-year-old Isaac Kountz was killed on this spot while herding his father's sheep in Kimble County, one of countless flashpoints of violence on the Texas frontier. His younger brother Sebastian, only eleven, escaped, and a posse joined by Texas Rangers pursued the raiders to the Guadalupe River. Isaac was buried in the Junction Cemetery, and the marker recalls the perils that shadowed even the youngest members of settler families.