Old Davenport Home
Concan, Uvalde County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Originally an early settler's 1-room log house on the Dry Frio (1 mi. N), built in era of Lipan-Apache raids and infestation of this frontier by outlaws. Enlarged for his family of 12 by L. C. ("Clabe") Davenport, who moved here about 1884. Added were a second log room, a hall, stone rooms on rear. After cattleman Davenport prospered and built a frame home, the old cabin still was used as kitchen, dining room and guest rooms. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1967.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
On the Dry Frio in Uvalde County, a one-room log cabin rose in an era of Lipan-Apache raids and roving outlaws, when a house doubled as a refuge. About 1884 cattleman L. C. "Clabe" Davenport enlarged it for his family of twelve, adding a second log room, a hall, and stone rooms at the rear. When he later prospered and built a frame home, the old cabin lived on as kitchen, dining room, and guest quarters.
Why it matters
The house is a layered record of frontier settlement in the Texas Hill Country—how a defensive log room grew, room by room, into a prospering ranch family's home.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Along the Frio River country of Uvalde County, settlement came late and carefully. This was the rugged southwestern edge of the Texas Hill Country, where clear rivers cut through limestone hills. For much of the nineteenth century it was contested ground. The marker recalls an era of Lipan Apache raids and of outlaws who took advantage of the thin reach of the law.
The first homes here were small, practical, and often defensive: a single log room that could shelter a family and be held against trouble. Settlers built with what the land gave them, timber for walls and stone for chimneys and foundations. Nothing was wasted.
By the 1880s the region was changing. The conflicts of the earlier frontier were fading, and cattle ranching was becoming a steadier way of life. Families who had arrived with little could, with luck and hard work, build something lasting. The old Davenport home records that shift in wood and stone.
People & events
The house began as an early settler's one-room log cabin on the Dry Frio, about a mile north of the marker. We don't know that first builder's name from the marker, but the cabin tells us something about them: they built small and solid in a place where a house had to be a refuge as well as a home.
Around 1884, L. C. “Clabe” Davenport moved here with his large family. With twelve people under one roof, a single room would never do, so he enlarged it. He added a second log room, a hall, and stone rooms at the back. You can almost read the family's growth in those additions, each one built as it was needed.
Davenport was a cattleman, and over time he prospered. Eventually he built a frame house, a sign that the family had moved beyond frontier survival. The old cabin wasn't abandoned, though. It became the working heart of the place, used as the kitchen, the dining room, and guest rooms. In 1967 the house was named a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark.
Its place in the American story
The Davenport home tells a story that repeated across the American frontier: a small, defensive first shelter grew over time into a comfortable family homestead. Log rooms, additions, and a later frame house show the stages of settlement, from a dangerous edge to a prosperous ranch community.
It also reflects the cattle economy that shaped so much of the West in the late nineteenth century. Ranching gave families like the Davenports a way to build wealth on land that was hard to farm. The move from log to frame construction was a common outward sign of that success.
Most of all, the house is a reminder that frontier history lived in ordinary buildings as well as in battles and famous names. Buildings like this one, added to and reused instead of torn down, keep a quiet record of how everyday families lived through a changing country.
If you visit
Concan is in the beautiful Frio River country, known for its clear, cool water, cypress-lined banks, and rugged hills. It's a favorite destination for swimming, tubing, and camping, so this marker makes a good stop that adds some history to a summer trip on the river.
When you look at the old home, try to see it the way the marker describes it: a single log room, then a second, then a hall, then stone rooms at the back. Notice the mix of log and stone. Each material represents a stage in the family's life and a choice made with local resources.
Respect the site and any private property nearby, and enjoy the landscape for what it tells you. This valley was once a hard and uncertain frontier. Today it's a peaceful retreat, and the Davenport home stands between those two eras.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · L. C. "Clabe" Davenport
Themes & tags
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