Old English-Crist House
Pipe Creek, Bandera County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Land here bought 1878 by J. W. English; this cabin built about 1888 near crossing of Medina Rivers; was sold 1906 to T.S. Crist. Families gave shelter and food to many travelers, including wagon train pioneer, charcoal haulers, and Texas Rangers. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1968.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
J. W. English bought this land in 1878 and built the cabin around 1888 near a crossing of the Medina River; it was sold to T. S. Crist in 1906. Standing along a well-traveled route, the home offered food and shelter to a steady stream of passersby—wagon-train pioneers, charcoal haulers, and Texas Rangers among them. It was recorded as a Texas Historic Landmark in 1968.
Why it matters
The cabin embodies the frontier ethic of hospitality that sustained travelers across the rugged Texas Hill Country.
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Related people
- · J. W. English
- · T. S. Crist
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Old Buck Ranch
Bandera vicinity, TX
This ranch was settled in 1867 by former New Yorker Judge Edward M. Ross, a Mexican War veteran who had served in the 1850s at Camp Verde, the Army's nearby camel post. His hand-cut native-stone house passed to his daughter Kate, wife of Ebenezer Buck of a prominent pioneer family, who inherited it in 1901. In 1920 the Bucks turned the ranch into Bandera's first guest ranch, famed for its food and hospitality until their deaths in 1941.
Spettel Riverside House
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John B. Spettel, Jr. built a fortune in area cattle through partnerships with his brother, brother-in-law, and neighbors, and by 1881 he and his wife Theresa Leibold had settled into this ornately trimmed house above the Medina River. Standing near Mitchell's Crossing on the road between Castroville and Bandera, it became a favorite stop for travelers. When the Medina Dam was finished in 1912 and the lake rose over its original site, the whole house was moved to higher ground.
Polly's Chapel
Bandera vicinity, TX
Policarpo "Polly" Rodriguez lived one of the frontier's most varied lives—Texas Ranger, U.S. Army scout, and guide across the rugged Hill Country—before settling along Privilege Creek in 1858. After a religious conversion, he raised this small chapel of native stone with his own hands in 1882 and preached here for the rest of his long life. It stands as a quiet monument to a Tejano frontiersman who traded the trail for the pulpit.
Bandera County
Bandera, TX
The Bandera area was a strategic point on the Indian frontier, where Rangers and Comanches clashed in 1843 amid the contested borderlands of the young Republic. Settlement came quickly thereafter: Elder Lyman Wight established a Mormon colony in 1854, Polish immigrants arrived in 1855, and the county was created and organized out of Bexar in 1856. The seat of Bandera had been founded in 1853 by John James, Charles de Montel, and John Herndon.