Cloud Place
Junction, Kimble County, Texas
Marker Inscription
1879. Early Kimble County social center. Built for his family of 14 by W. J. Cloud, a veteran of Terry's Texas Rangers service during the Civil War. Stone for 18-inch walls came from nearby mountain, lumber by ox-wagons, from Austin. Has wide board floors. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1965
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built in 1879 for his family of fourteen by W.J. Cloud, a veteran of Terry's Texas Rangers, this stone house became an early social center of Kimble County. Its eighteen-inch walls were laid from stone quarried on a nearby mountain, while the lumber for its wide board floors was hauled in by ox-wagon all the way from Austin. It was named a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1965.
Why it matters
Cloud Place reflects the resourcefulness of frontier families who built durable homes and gathering places from local stone in the still-raw Texas Hill Country of the post–Civil War years.
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Related people
- · W.J. Cloud
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Cloud Point
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Cloud Point is the cliff commanding the junction of the Llano River valley and Johnson Fork Creek, long a natural landmark for soldiers and travelers crossing this rugged Hill Country terrain. Its name honors the family of Civil War veteran William Johnston Cloud, who bought land nearby and made his home in view of the bluff. Beneath it once ran a web of historic routes—the Upper Presidio Road, the military road from Fort Terrett to San Antonio, and the transcontinental Old Spanish Trail—though modern highways bypassed it in the 1970s.
Miller-Browning Colony
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In 1874 two families settled a small colony in the newly organized ranch country of Kimble County, joining the frontier militia and helping stand up the county's first courts and juries. Their patriarch, remembered by the nickname his neighbors gave him for his integrity, served as a justice of the peace, while a member of the allied family held county office longer than anyone before him. Descendants still live in the county today.
First Court Tree
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This site marks where, in 1876, one of the first court hearings in newly organized Kimble County was held in the open, presided over by Judge W. A. Blackburn. Texas Rangers stood guard, and in the rough frontier fashion of the day the proceedings were conducted with a tree pressed into service in place of a courthouse. It is a vivid image of law arriving in the Hill Country before its institutions were fully built.
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