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Loyal Valley, Texas Information

Loyal Valley, Texas is an unincorporated farming and ranching community, six miles north of Cherry Spring in the southeastern corner of Mason County. The community is located near Cold Spring Creek,[3] which runs east for 7½ miles to its mouth on Marschall Creek in Llano County, just west of Loyal Valley . The community is located on the old Pinta Trail.[4] [5]

Current population is 50. Elevation 1,522 feet.[6]

Contents

Settlers and Community

Loyal Valley was settled in 1858 by German immigrants from Fredericksburg, including Henry and Christian Keyser, John Kidd, and a Mr. Gertsdorff.[7] It was also a stagecoach stop on the route between San Antonio and the western forts.

The community received a post office in 1868, and Solomon Wright was the first postmaster.[8]

John O. Meusebach[9] moved to Loyal Valley in 1869 and laid out the town, where he opened a store and nursery, was the justice of the peace and served as the community’s second postmaster in 1873. His daughter Lucy Meusebach Marschall was postmaster in January 1887, and his wife Agnes became postmaster in August 1887.

No one really knows how the community came to be named. Conflicting accounts about the name’s origins are often tied to Meusebach. One theory is that his perception of loyalty among the settlers prompted his designating the area as such. A second theory is that Meusebach, who did not move to the area until after the end of the American Civil War, named it for loyalty to the Union during the war.

Meusebach brokered the Meusebach-Comanche Treaty in 1847,[10] making area settlers safe from Comanche raids. However, Kiowa, and Apache depredations were still committed against the settlers. During the 1870’s, settlers from neighboring communities relocated to Loyal Valley for safety.

The most famous white captive of the area was Herman Lehmann, son of Augusta and Moritz Lehmann.[11][12] Philip Buchmeyer (or Buchmeier) was the second husband of the widowed Augusta Lehmann, and stepfather to her sons Herman and Willie.[13] The Buchmeyers ran a hotel and saloon, which later was owned by Charlie Metcalf. Philip Buchmeyer built a one-room stone structure school-church, which was still standing as of 1980.[14]

Mason County Hoo Doo War

In 1875, a war erupted in Mason County over cattle rustling and those who took the law into their own hands. In the midst of the war, Loyal Valley home owner Tim Williamson[15][16] was murdered by a dozen masked vigilantes who accused him of cattle theft. Williamson’s adopted son Texas Ranger Scott Cooley[16] sought revenge. Cooley and his desperadoes, which included Johnny Ringo,[17] created a reign of terror over the area. It was during this episode that Ringo committed his first murder, that of James Cheyney.[18] [19]

See also

References

  1. ^ "American FactFinder". United States Census Bureau. http://factfinder.census.gov. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
  2. ^ "US Board on Geographic Names". United States Geological Survey. 2007-10-25. http://geonames.usgs.gov. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
  3. ^ Cold Spring Creek from the Handbook of Texas Online. Retrieved 30 April 2010. Texas State Historical Association
  4. ^ Nixon, Nina L: Pinta Trail (El Camino Pinta) from the Handbook of Texas Online. Retrieved 30 April 2010. Texas State Historical Association
  5. ^ "El Camino Pinta". City of San Antonio. http://www.sanantonio.gov/planning/neighborhoods/north%20central/Appendix%20J.PDF. Retrieved 30 April 2010. City of San Antonio
  6. ^ "Geographical Names Information System, Loyal Valley". U.S. Dept of the Interior. http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=135:3:3098751676464119::NO:3:P3_FID,P3_TITLE:1380113,Loyal%20Valley. Retrieved 30 April 2010. U.S. Dept of the Interior
  7. ^ Rhoades, Alice J: Loyal Valley from the Handbook of Texas Online. Retrieved 30 April 2010. Texas State Historical Association
  8. ^ "Loyal Valley Postmasters". Jim Wheat. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txpost/mason.html. Retrieved 30 April 2010. Jim Wheat
  9. ^ Kennedy, Ira. "German Intellectuals on the Texas Frontier". TexFiles. http://www.texfiles.com/texashistory/castell.htm. Retrieved 30 April 2010. TexFiles
  10. ^ Tetzlaff, Otto W: Meusebach-Comanche Treaty from the Handbook of Texas Online. Retrieved 30 April 2010. Texas State Historical Association
  11. ^ Lehmann, Herman; Hunter, J Marvin; Giese, Dale F (1993). Nine Years Among the Indians, 1870-1879: The Story of the Captivity and Life of a Texan Among the Indians. University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 978-0826314178.
  12. ^ Hudspeth, Brewster. "The Savage Life Of Herman Lehmann". Texas Escapes - Blueprints For Travel, LLC.. http://www.texasescapes.com/They-Shoe-Horses-Dont-They/The-Savage-Life-of-Herman-Lehmann.htm. Retrieved 30 April 2010. Texas Escapes - Blueprints For Travel, LLC.
  13. ^ "Loyal Valley Cemetery". http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~burzynsk/LoyalValley.html. Retrieved 30 April 2010.
  14. ^ Western Ghost Towns. "Loyal Valley". http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~gulino/ghosttown/loyal_valley_tx.htm. Retrieved 30 April 2010.
  15. ^ "Tim Williamson". Find A Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=williamson&GSfn=tim&GSby&GSdy&GSst=46&GScnty=2679&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=25454668&. Retrieved 2 July 2010.
  16. ^ a b Johnson, David; Miller, Rick (2009). The Mason County ""Hoo Doo"" War, 1874-1902 (A.C. Greene Series). University of North Texas Press. ISBN 978-1574412628.
  17. ^ Johnson, David; Parsons, Chuck (2008). John Ringo, King of the Cowboys: His Life and Times from the Hoo Doo War to Tombstone, Second Edition (A. C. Greene). University of North Texas Press. ISBN 978-1574412437.
  18. ^ Hadeler, Glenn. "The Mason County Hoo Doo Wars". TexFiles. http://www.texfiles.com/texashistory/hoodoowar.htm. Retrieved 30 April 2010. TexFiles
  19. ^ "Johnny Ringo and the Hoo Doo War". http://www.johnnyringo.com/jrtexas.html. Retrieved 30 April 2010.

External links

Municipalities and communities of Mason County, Texas
County seat: Mason
City

Mason
Unincorporated communities

Art | Fredonia | Katemcy | Loyal Valley | Pontotoc

Categories: Mason County, Texas | Unincorporated communities in Texas | German-American history | Populated places established in 1848

 

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