Coalson-Pullen Colony
Junction, Kimble County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(cabin chimney at site, about 3 mi. NW) Opened 1866 by Nick and Jennie (Blackwell) Coalson, who moved from Menard area. Stockraising and hunting provided livelihood. Their "bacon" was cured bear meat. Indians often stole horses, and in Dec. 1870 attacked cabin when Coalson and Charlie Mann had gone hunting. Ranch hand Joe Harris was killed. Mrs. Coalson in man's attire held off Indians until her husband returned. Later Coalson sold the ranch to surveyor - Civil War veteran Dr. Asa Pullen and wife Juliet (Gilliland), who had 6 daughters. Many descendants of this family still live in Kimble County.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Nick and Jennie Coalson opened this Kimble County ranch in 1866, scratching out a living by stockraising and hunting — their "bacon" was cured bear meat. In December 1870, while the men were away hunting, raiders attacked the cabin and killed ranch hand Joe Harris; Jennie Coalson, dressed in men's clothes, held them off until her husband returned. The Coalsons later sold to Civil War veteran and surveyor Dr. Asa Pullen, whose family's descendants still live in the county.
Why it matters
It captures the raw dangers and hard self-reliance of frontier ranching in the Texas Hill Country during the last decades of the Indian wars.
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Related people
- · Nick Coalson
- · Jennie Blackwell Coalson
- · Asa Pullen
- · Joe Harris
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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Old Bear Creek Texas Ranger Camp
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Isaac Kountz
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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.