Henry Briden Cabin
Rio Vista, Johnson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Henry Briden (1825-1908) came to Texas from his native Germany in 1845 and served for two years as a Texas Ranger. In 1849, he and his wife, Lucinda Sevier (1831-75), became first permanent white settlers in what is now Johnson County, when they built this cabin on the east bank of Nolan's River (2.5 mil. northwest). The one-room log structure was later used as a barn when Briden erected a larger home nearby. In 1974, it was restored and moved to this site.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
German immigrant Henry Briden reached Texas in 1845 and served two years as a Texas Ranger before he and his wife Lucinda became, in 1849, the first permanent settlers in what is now Johnson County. They raised this one-room log cabin on the bank of Nolan's River; it later became a barn once Briden built a larger home. Restored and moved in 1974, the humble structure survives as the county's founding dwelling.
Why it matters
Briden's cabin marks the very beginning of permanent settlement in Johnson County and the immigrant-and-Ranger path that opened much of frontier Texas.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Henry Briden
- · Lucinda Sevier
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Menefee Reunion
Rio Vista, TX
This site marks the long-running reunion of the Menefee family, begun in 1890 and held here since 1891. Their Texas ancestor, William L. Menefee, arrived in 1830, signed the Texas Declaration of Independence in 1836, helped choose the site of the capital at Austin, and served six terms in the Congress of the Republic. The gathering honors a lineage the marker traces back to colonists reaching America in 1623.
Early Cattle Trade
Rio Vista, TX
Texas had been famed for beef since Republic days, and during the Civil War its herds fed much of the Confederacy—civilians and soldiers alike—along a web of trails running to Vicksburg, Natchez, Mobile, Little Rock, and beyond. Drovers swam cattle across rivers as wide as the Mississippi, and the hazards ran to mistaken arrests: one officer and his son died in prison on such a drive. Johnson County supplier Meredith Hart, a veteran of 1836, kept sending beef even after being cheated with counterfeit money.
Rio Vista
Rio Vista, TX
Rio Vista rose on the railroad in 1885 in one of Johnson County's earliest-settled areas, taking its Spanish name — "river view" — from its outlook over the Nolan River and Mustang Creek. Within a decade it boasted stores, a lumber yard, gins, a school, and three passenger trains a day, until a devastating 1914 fire leveled 24 buildings and slowed its growth. Cotton and later dairy farming carried the town, and a 1950s state highway brought a fresh boost.
Haley-Smith Cemetery
Rio Vista, TX
Thomas Haley reached Johnson County by 1852, built a race track along the Nolands River, and bred fine horses before serving as a captain in Parson's mounted volunteers during the Civil War; he died in 1865 of battle wounds, and his is the oldest marked grave here. The cemetery also holds Leonard Fisher, another Civil War veteran, and John Hubble, a veteran of the Texas War for Independence, among the county's pioneers. Since the 1990s a cemetery association has cared for the small burial ground.