Old Stanard Home
Medina, Bandera County, Texas
Marker Inscription
On land owned by John James, surveyor of Bandera and Castroville townsites, and by Confederate general John Bell Hood. Hostile Indians prevented construction until 1878, two years prior to founding of Medina. Owned by Standard family since 1889. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1965.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This hill-country homesite sits on land once tied to surveyor John James and Confederate General John Bell Hood, in country so contested that raids delayed any building until 1878—just two years before the town of Medina took shape nearby. The Standard family has held the property since 1889, and it endures as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark. Its story is one of persistence on a frontier where settlement waited on the easing of conflict.
Why it matters
It marks the moment the Texas Hill Country shifted from a dangerous frontier to settled ranch country, one homestead at a time.
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Related people
- · John James
- · John Bell Hood
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Bandera Pass
Bandera, TX
For thousands of years this narrow gap in the hills between the Guadalupe and Medina valleys funneled travelers through the Texas Hill Country. Comanche and Apache trails converged here, a Swiss botanist recorded native burial customs at the pass in 1828, and by the 1840s it saw patrols and clashes between Texas Rangers and Native peoples. Later it carried U.S. Army surveyors mapping routes to California, then cattle drives up the Western Trail, and finally a state highway.
Bandera Pass
Bandera vicinity, TX
This gap through the mountains has been a celebrated crossing since the earliest days of Spanish settlement, linking the Medina and Guadalupe river country. Generations of frontier fighting and raiding passed through it, and it served as an old Texas Ranger trail as well as a U.S. Army route between frontier posts. Its narrow passage made it a natural chokepoint in the contested Hill Country.
Penateka Comanches
Center Point, TX
The Penateka, or "honey eaters," were the southernmost band of the Comanche, ranging across the Edwards Plateau and following the buffalo on which they depended for food, clothing, and shelter. Renowned horsemen, they made settlement west of this area perilous for decades. Pressure from Texas Rangers and the U.S. Army's Second Cavalry, reservation removals, and the Red River War of 1874–75 forced the Comanche onto reservation lands, where the breakup of holdings in 1901 scattered the people — who have since worked to rebuild their shared culture.
Captain Jack Phillips
Bandera, TX
On December 29, 1876, Bandera County Deputy Sheriff Capt. Jack Phillips rode alone toward Sabinal Canyon and was ambushed by Indians at Seco Canyon Pass. After his horse was shot out from under him, he ran half a mile on foot before being killed; a passing couple bound for their own wedding found his body. Tragically, Texas Rangers had trailed the same raiders for miles but turned back exhausted just before the attack.