Thomas C. and Eliza V. Felps
Johnson City, Blanco County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Born in Tennessee in 1836, Thomas C. Felps came to Texas in 1850 and to this area in 1856. He earned a living by freighting and joined the Blanco County Rangers during the Civil War. In 1863 he married Eliza V. White (b. 1846), a native of Ohio. In the summer of 1869, the couple lived with Eliza's parents while Thomas recovered from a fever. Her father, newly-appointed County Judge S. T. White, had gone to Blanco on July 21, 1869, when Thomas and Eliza were killed by a band of Indians on Cypress Creek. Only Eliza was scalped. The couple's orphaned children, Thomas and Caroline, were cared for by Eliza's parents. (1975)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Tennessee-born Thomas C. Felps came to Texas as a boy and to the Blanco County frontier in 1856, making his living freighting and serving with the county's rangers during the Civil War. In 1863 he married Eliza White, an Ohio native. In the summer of 1869, while Thomas recovered from a fever at her parents' home, the young couple was killed by a band of Indians along Cypress Creek, leaving two orphaned children to be raised by Eliza's family.
Why it matters
The Felps' deaths capture the everyday danger of the Texas Hill Country frontier in the years after the Civil War, when settlement and Indian raiding still collided violently.
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Related people
- · Thomas C. Felps
- · Eliza V. Felps
- · S.T. White
Themes & tags
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