Old Log Cabin
Junction, Kimble County, Texas
Marker Inscription
OLD LOG CABIN. TYPICAL OF 1870-80 ERA. BUILT BY EMERY B. PIERCE ON RANCH OF JOHN KOUNTZ, HIS BOSS, 2 MI.S. OF JUNCTION. MOVED HERE AND REMODELED, 1903. RECORDED TEXAS HISTORIC LANDMARK, 1965
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This modest log cabin is typical of the dwellings raised across the Texas Hill Country in the 1870s and 1880s, built by ranch hand Emery B. Pierce on the spread of his employer, John Kountz, a couple of miles south of Junction. It was moved to its present spot and remodeled in 1903 and later designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark. Simple structures like this housed the working people who made ranching possible in Kimble County.
Why it matters
Preserved pioneer cabins are rare survivors of everyday frontier life, reminding us that most western history was lived in one-room homes, not grand houses.
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Related people
- ¡ Emery B. Pierce
- ¡ John Kountz
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
City of Junction
Junction, TX
Platted in 1876 as "Denman" in the year Kimble County was organized, this town was soon renamed by its voters to reflect its site at the junction of the North and South Llano rivers. Steady growth brought 300 residents, a courthouse, jail, school, churches, and stores by 1882. Incorporated in 1927, Junction added water and sewer systems, a municipal hall, and even a swimming pool as it matured into the twentieth century.
First Post Office
Junction, TX
Junction's first post office opened in 1876 under postmaster Harriet Kountz, who at first simply kept the mail at home. In 1879 her husband, Dr. Ezekiel Kountz, built a post office, drugstore, and mercantile on the square using lumber hauled from Austin, and the building also served as the county's first offices. The old store stood until it was dismantled in 1911.
Kimble County
Junction, TX
This hill country along the Llano was home to Jumano and Apache peoples when Spanish explorers passed through in the 1600s and 1700s, before the Comanche came to dominate the region by the mid-1800s. Frontier forts and the Texas Rangers guarded the area as Anglo settlement pushed westward, and the county was organized in 1876, named for an Alamo defender. Long troubled by outlaws until the Rangers restored order in the 1880s, it settled into a livelihood of sheep and goat ranching for wool and mohair.
Fight of Sheriff's Posse with Cattle Rustlers
Junction, TX
On February 6, 1897, Kimble County sheriff John L. Jones and five deputies tracked the Nite brothers and J. C. Crane to a remote spot with cattle and horses stolen from local ranchers. In the gunfight that followed, Crane and Jourd Nite were killed and buried where they fell, while a wounded Jim Nite survived to stand trial weeks later under an alias.