Blanco County Trail Drives
Johnson City, Blanco County, Texas
Marker Inscription
From this headquarters site in the 1870s, the brothers J. T. and Sam Ealy Johnson started thousands of cattle up trails to Kansas and other shipping or market points. To the west, at Williamson's Creek, and at Deer Creek (southeast) the Johnsons had gathering and processing pens. They had largest individual trail driving outfit in Blanco and six nearby counties, sending north several herds of 2,500 to 3,000 each season. Sam Ealy, the younger Johnson brother, is known to history as grandfather of 36th president of the United States, Lyndon Baines Johnson. (1969)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
From this Blanco County headquarters in the 1870s, brothers J. T. and Sam Ealy Johnson launched thousands of cattle up the trails to Kansas railheads, gathering and processing herds at pens on Williamson's and Deer creeks. Theirs was the largest trail-driving outfit across Blanco and six neighboring counties, sending north herds of 2,500 to 3,000 head each season. Younger brother Sam Ealy Johnson would become grandfather to President Lyndon Baines Johnson.
Why it matters
The great post–Civil War cattle drives built Texas fortunes and folklore alike — and here they touch the family roots of a future president.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · J. T. Johnson
- · Sam Ealy Johnson
- · Lyndon Baines Johnson
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Stonewall Community Cemetery
Stonewall, TX
This cemetery first served Millville, a settlement laid out after the Civil War by Israel Nuñez, who ran a nearby stage stop. Though Nuñez set aside the ground early, it was not formally deeded until 1934, and its earliest marked grave dates to 1879. Millville became Stonewall in 1875, and after a pause the cemetery saw burials resume in 1966.
The Pinta Trail
Fredericksburg, TX
Long before wagon wheels cut its ruts, the Pinta Trail began as a path worn by nomadic Plains peoples across the Texas Hill Country, linking San Antonio de Béxar with the San Sabá River country near present Menard. Spanish and Mexican expeditions borrowed its general course, and in 1845 German immigrant surveyors improved part of it into a wagon road. After the 1849 California gold rush, U.S. military companies pressed it into service scouting new routes west, until the railroads of the late 19th and early 20th centuries made the old trace obsolete.
James Polk Johnson
Johnson City, TX
Georgia-born and raised in DeWitt County, James Polk Johnson served in the Confederate army before joining his uncles in the Blanco County cattle business, which he bought and made his own by 1871. In 1879 he founded a new town on the Pedernales River — Johnson City — and worked to develop it, though his ambition to make it the county seat was not realized until 1891, six years after his death.
James Polk Johnson Building
Johnson City, TX
Built by town founder James Polk Johnson, this versatile structure served Johnson City as a community hall, opera house, and meeting place for churches and civic groups, while also housing banks, stores, hotels, and offices. When the Blanco County seat moved to Johnson City in 1890, the building briefly served as courthouse and jail. Years later, former president Lyndon Johnson kept an office here for a time.