George Rice Bevers Homesite
Graford, Palo Pinto County, Texas
Marker Inscription
On the Fort Worth-Fort Belknap Road, near Flat Rock Crossing of Keechi Creek. Occupied 1854 when such travelers as Indian agent Robert S. Neighbors were fed or housed overnight by Bevers. First Palo Pinto county school opened in vicinity in 1856, on a path smoothed by oxen pulling a log. In Bevers Cemetery lies a victim of 1860s Indian raids that sent settlers to refuges as remote as the courthouse in Fort Worth. Bevers (1825-1904), his wife Lucinda Jane Tacker (1825-73), and children lived near Curetons, Goodnights, Slaughters, other noted pioneers.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
George Rice Bevers settled this spot on the Fort Worth–Fort Belknap Road in 1854, near Flat Rock Crossing of Keechi Creek, where he fed and housed travelers such as famed Indian agent Robert S. Neighbors. Palo Pinto County's first school opened nearby in 1856, and the family lived among noted pioneer neighbors like the Curetons, Goodnights and Slaughters. The nearby Bevers Cemetery holds a victim of the Indian raids of the 1860s that drove frightened settlers to seek refuge as far away as the Fort Worth courthouse.
Why it matters
The Bevers homesite captures the dangers and daily rhythms of the North Texas frontier, where a family farm doubled as a waystation on the road west and a school and settlement rose amid the risk of raids.
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Related people
- · George Rice Bevers
- · Robert S. Neighbors
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Alfred Lane
Graford, TX
Tennessee-born Alfred Lane came to Texas with his family in 1836 and settled in Robertson's colony before moving to the Black Springs area of Palo Pinto County in 1856, where he raised horses on the open range after marrying Elizabeth Goodnight. Brother-in-law to the famed cattleman Charles Goodnight, who called him "a splendid brave man," Lane scouted for the Texas Rangers during the Civil War and helped drive Goodnight's cattle west of Fort Belknap. He was killed by Indians while returning home and lies buried in nearby Crawford Cemetery.
Reuben Vaughan
Graford, TX
Alabama-born Reuben Vaughan migrated to Texas in 1852 and in 1854 brought his family to this area as the first permanent settlers in present Palo Pinto County, raising a cabin of cedar and stone. A farmer and stock raiser who kept friendly relations with the region's Indian tribes, he served in a frontier battalion protecting settlements during the Civil War and lies buried in this family cemetery.
Charles Goodnight
Oran, TX
In 1857 a twenty-one-year-old Charles Goodnight set up his first ranch at Black Springs on the very edge of the Comanche frontier, where cattle and danger ran together. He scouted for the Texas Rangers during the Civil War, blazed the Goodnight-Loving Trail in 1866, and famously hauled his dying partner Oliver Loving's body home for burial. Later he founded the panhandle's first ranch, the JA, and even bred buffalo with cattle—the "cattalo."
Sam Savage, Captive of the Comanches
Mineral Wells, TX
In March 1866, five-year-old Sam Savage survived a Comanche raid on his father's Parker County farm that killed his father Bolin and his uncle James; Sam, his brother, and a cousin were carried off into captivity. After a posse failed to overtake the raiders, trader John Fields located the children that November and ransomed them for $414 at Fort Arbuckle. Sam went on to become a rancher, farmer, and champion fiddler, living to 90 and often recounting the months he spent learning the Comanche language and the bow before his return.