Farmers, Ranchers, the Land and the Falls - Texas Parks & Wildlife ...

Farmers, Ranchers, the Land and the Falls
18 “John B. Wenmohs,” in Arthur Davis Ellis, ed., The Historical Encyclopedia
of Texas (n.p.: Texas Historical Society, n.d. [1938?], vol. 2, 801; Alice Watts, “If
Ponce de Leon Hadn’t Lived Too Soon He Could Have Gotten Good Tip from Cen
Texan,” Austin American (October 9, 1940); Wenmohs family genealogical material in
possession of Dena Wenmohs, Blanco County, Texas.
19 Smyrl, “Cypress Mill,” 465; Goeth, Memoirs of a Texas Pioneer Grandmother,
88; ethnic composition of settlers in immediate vicinity of Pedernales Falls based
upon author’s examination of U.S. Census Manuscript Population Schedule, Blanco
County, Texas, 1880, Precinct 2.
20 Conclusion based on author’s analysis of land grant applications and
homestead affidavits for the various tracts within the confines of present-day
Pedernales Falls State Park. Greene Wilson filed the first homestead application in
the area on May 5, 1873, but it was witnessed by Henry Wilson. In a subsequent
Proof of Settlement, Greene Wilson affirmed that he had “occupied and improved”
this land (Survey 407) beginning November 10, 1873. Henry Wilson filed the next
homestead affidavit in the Pedernales State Park area (for Survey 408) on December
15, 1873. Texas General Land Office (hereafter TGLO), Land Grant Records, files
P-245 and P-609.
21 Wilson family genealogical materials supplied by Joyce Brock, Wimberly,
Texas. According to Brock, Jesse Wilson is buried in Round Rock in an unmarked
grave in Sam Bass Cemetery.
22 Joyce Brock genealogy materials; James Calvin Wilson, Some Musings of
a Religious Mystic (Brazoria, Texas, 1961), biographical preface; Wilson homestead
affidavits in TGLO, Land Grant Records, Files P-245 and P-609. Greene appears to
have taken his widowed mother, Winna Wood Wilson, with him to his Pedernales
land, since she died in Blanco County in 1876 (date from Brock materials). But this
has not been confirmed by any source. Winna may be buried in one of the graves in
the “Pioneer Cemetery” once located on Greene Wilson’s land.
23 Mrs. Mary Terry Homestead Affidavit and Proof of Settlement, March
1874, in TGLO, Land Grant Records, file P-2070. Her honorific “Mrs.” appears on
this document, as does her statement that she was “head of the family.”
24 Interview with Bobby Wilson, Blanco County, Texas; approximate date
of Trammell’s arrival in the area established by his signature on Mary Terry’s 1874
homestead affidavit (see note 21 above); Trammell’s full name established from entry
in Bible once belonging to Annie Jane Trammell, now in possession of Bobby Wilson;
Joyce Brock genealogical materials.
25 The account above was pieced together from information in Joyce Brock’s
genealogy materials and notations in a Bible that once belonged to Annie Jane
Trammell; Bible in possession of Bobby Wilson. Betsy Raines, born in 1852 in Clear
Creek, Arkansas, was about 16 years old when she married T.J. Trammell.
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