Nelson tragedy tempered by Stevens family triumphs

EDITOR’S NOTE — This is the 140th of a series of articles marking Kerr County’s 2006 sesquicentennial.

By Irene Van Winkle

West Kerr Current

Hiram Louis Nelson I (1797-1862) of Mountain Home, a neighbor of the Hendersons, had been a resident of the Hill Country for only a few years before he was hanged at Spring Creek. His death, along with that of three other men during the Civil War, was a tragedy which has been documented often.

It is an ancestral story about her paternal great-great-grandfather that Mary Virginia Stevens Holekamp has heard many times. She also hopes to preserve her other ancestral lines, including the Stevens and Nelson sides.

Mary Virginia lives with her husband, George, at their Fall Creek ranch off Lower Turtle Creek Road, and although the Holekamp story (see West Kerr Current, Sept. 25, 2008) interests her greatly, she is also fluent in her own roots.

She and George are both eager that their five children know where they had come from. After all, part of their heritage is the land that each side has passed down, both in Kerr and Gillespie counties.

Not much is known about the Nelson family’s earlier generations, except that Hiram I had been born in Orange County, North Carolina (one source said Tennessee), and was the son of Thomas Burton and Martha Williams Nelson of North Carolina.

One record notes he was descended from the early Puritan settler Miles Standish.

Hiram I’s wife, Mary “Polly” Anna Roundtree (1804-1868), had come from Kentucky. Hiram and Polly lived in Washington County, Ill., where their children (Rosa, Hiram L., Nancy, Levi, Allen, William Thomas and Itaska) were born.

All narratives agree that Hiram I was an old man when he died (one claimed he was as old as 80 years of age), but at 65 years of age, for that era, he was indeed aged. Another man who died at Spring Creek was Howard Henderson’s uncle, Seebird.

As with so many early settlers, the Nelsons befriended, and then intermarried with families who were their neighbors in the Hill Country.

Hiram II married Olive McDonald. He stood 6 feet1 inch, was fair complected, blue-eyed and light-haired, and his occupation was farmer and stockman. His Mountain Home residence after his Texas Ranger service was “16 miles west of Kerrville, Texas on Johnson’s Creek in Kerr County.” This location would have put his home in the area of the present Clarke and Meadows’ ranches, according to native Wanda Henderson.

Mary Virginia said that early in their arrival, the Nelsons had stayed near the Hendersons at what was called Roaring Rock. An Internet search for Hiram and Olive showed that they were missing from the 1860 Kerr County census, and were possibly in Mexico at that time. However, it does not say which members of the family were there.

Hiram II and Olive had a large family — 10 children: Mary Elizabeth, Emma, Hiram Cass, Allen Sherman, William Harvey, Lee Ward, Silas “Bunk,” Frank, Nellie and Rose Itasca. After Olive died, Hiram II petitioned for a pension in 1917, having served as a Texas Ranger during the “Indian Wars.” He was an orderly sergeant with Captain John W. Sansom’s Company of Texas Rangers, Company C, receiving an honorable discharge in 1871 at Ft. Griffin. He also served in Captain Banta’s Company of Minute Men during 1860-61 and after the Civil War.

The pension claim form was witnessed by Henry Schwethelm and A.B. Williamson, and signed by Kerr County Clerk, J.R. Leavell and deputy, W.A. Lochte. His pension was $20 per month. Several years ago, his grave at Sunset Cemetery received a Texas Rangers cross.

The Stevens clan came here soon after the Civil War, having known the McDonalds from Illinois, Mary Virginia said. During the western expansion, the Stevens men made their way into new territories rather quickly.

Two Stevens brothers, Andrew Jackson (1851-1927) and Joseph “Joe,” who were born in Illinois, were very young when they rode to Texas on horseback from Cassville, Mo. Their mother, Octavia Mathew Stevens, who was widowed when the boys were young, remarried. She wed an Englishman named Albert Henbest, after which the family moved from Marshall, Ill. to Cassville. The family grew by two more sons and four more daughters.

Mary Virginia said that Andrew and Joe may not have liked their new stepfather, and they left home.

“Pioneers in God’s Hills”, published in 1960, by the Gillespie County Historical Society, describes the intrepid brothers:

“Andrew and Joseph were handsome enough to excite the girls. Both were of medium height, well built, erect, had blue eyes and wore mustaches. Andrew had brown hair; Joe was a blond.”

In fact, Mary Virginia said, “Grandma Stevens told us that when the brothers first came out and stayed out with the Hendersons, the girls would go out to the water bucket just to get a good look at Andrew because he was so good-looking.”

They built up their ranches near Indian (now Stevens) Creek in Gillespie County, and began growing hay and livestock. They also married and raised families.

In 1876, Andrew married Mary Elizabeth Nelson, the daughter of Hiram II.

“I think Hiram gave Andrew some beautiful land so he would marry her, telling him she had had a very sad previous love affair,” Mary Virginia added. She said there was a cabin already on the land when they moved in.

Andrew and Mary had six children, four of whom lived to adulthood: James Oliver (“Pete”), Octavia, William Harvey and Lewis Andrew (1892-1947). Two daughters, Emma and Viola, both died as youngsters. Mary Virginia said that records show that Lewis was born in Willow City.

“I guess my grandmother might have been there visiting some relatives,” she said.

Gardening was important to Mary Elizabeth, and she would often take the fruits of her labor, hitch up her hack with a pair of mules and take them to sell her vegetables in Kerrville. The trips could be perilous at times, as described in “Here’s Harper” (1963):

“One day as she was driving back to the ranch, a panther began to follow her, but she dared not hit it with her whip for fear it would attack her. In terror she prayed to God to spare her and her children if they came to meet her when she would arrive at home. The panther left as suddenly as it appeared.”

Mary Elizabeth was also a midwife, Mary Virginia said, and successfully delivered many children, including two sets of twins.

Visitors such as cowboys and wayfarers were never in short supply out in the frontier, and since Andrew’s home was right on the way between Harper and Kerrville, he and Mary often found themselves hosting people for meals and a night’s stay. There was never a guarantee that everyone would behave themselves, so it was wise to be cautious.

In “Pioneers in God’s Hills,” there is a brief description of a traveler who drove up in a buggy drawn by two black horses and asked to spend the night.

“(He) was a man Andrew recognized as a desperado. Andrew and Mary agreed aside that it would be unwise to deny him hospitality. They were somewhat uneasy when at night he unstrapped two heavy guns from his belt and laid them on the table. Yet the stranger’s behavior was quiet and gentlemanly.”

A note in “Here’s Harper,” added that the man was actually the infamous outlaw, John Wesley Hardin:

“He sat facing the windows and wore a gun on each hip. The law was touchy about tying into him.”

Andrew’s brother, Joe, married Ella Jane Fannin, who had been born in Illinois (1859) but moved to Spring Creek when she was just a year old. Ella’s father, George, was a cousin of Goliad hero Col. James W. Fannin. (The story of the Fannins appeared in the WKC on Dec. 6, 2007.) Their home was close to Andrew’s, and about six miles from Harper. Like Hiram II, Joe served as a Texas Ranger, and Mary Virginia said that is how he acquired his land.

“The old Stevens’ homeplace was used in a movie called ‘Pony Express Rider,’” Mary Virginia said, made in 1976. “It had Festus (Ken Curtis) in it, and Hondo Crouch.”

Another locale used in the film was the YO Ranch.

Religious services became more regular once the Stevens and their neighbors helped found the Barnett Springs congregation of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in 1881.

“Here’s Harper” cited Mountain Home’s old-timer, Howard Henderson, as saying, “If everyone in the world were as good as Joe and Andrew Stevens, the lawyers would starve to death.”

Joe became ill with food poisoning while on a trip to San Antonio and died in 1887, leaving Ella to raise four small children: Louzetta, 10, Olivia, 9, Mart, 7, and Alfred, 4. Apparently, though, Ella made do around the farm well enough herself, and hired help for the plowing. However, she always kept up a cheerful spirit. When Ella was old and ailing, she was asked by a niece what she did for fun when she was young; Ella replied, laughing, “We worked!”

As the children grew, the first Klein Branch schoolhouse was built on the Stevens’ land. They also had the first area telephone, and Mary Virginia said she remembered having a party line there.

“The line was mostly for the family, and it was considered rude if you didn’t listen in, because it meant you didn’t care,” she said. “You knew if the phone rang in the middle of the night, something important had happened.”

Andrew died in 1922, and he and Mary were buried in Harper. Joe and his widow were interred at a family cemetery on Andrew Stevens’ ranch.

Mary Virginia still has some recipes from her great-grandmother, Olive.

The custard pie recipe includes some personal tidbits among the ingredients:

“She always said the more eggs, the better; the sugar was kept in a trunk for special occasions and Lillian remembers as a child walking to the Mt. Home store to buy 10 cents worth of sugar; this dessert was not cut in pie wedges but instead like a layer cake, in slices; it was a favorite at the campmeeting.”

Here were the notes for making “country eggs”:

“When men from way out on the Divide were driving stock into Kerrville, they would send a rider ahead to ask Mrs. Nelson to prepare dinner for the cowhands. She would cook whatever she had, but the dish she could always depend on was fried eggs. She would heat a lot of fat in a big frying pan and drop eggs into the hot grease as thick as they could fit. In the hot grease, the egg whites would rise up and cover the egg yolk. She served a big platter full of eggs at each end of the table.”

Mary Virginia’s father, Lewis, attended Klein Branch School except for his senior year, when he went to Tivy High School in Kerrville.

“He didn’t much care for school,” she said. “The only time he felt the need for more education was when he tried to sign up as a pilot during WWI, but they wouldn’t let him fly without having studied algebra. So, he joined the U.S. Army and served his time in San Antonio.”

Lewis married Mary Linton Barr, and Mary Virginia was their only child. Mary Linton’s grandfather, Jonathan Barr (born 1816), was a circuit riding preacher, and her father, Ailanthus (born 1846), also became a minister.

“My grandfather, Ailanthus, was the oldest son, who grew up taking care of the family,” she said. “He didn’t plan on becoming a minister until later in life. He attended the seminary and then was with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.”

Ailanthus married Jennie Manny Price (born 1862), who, Mary Virginia said, was “a real Southern lady, and somewhat younger than her husband. She really got into the role of being a minister’s wife. She made her daughter practice the piano two hours every day.”

Although her family had limited means, Mary Linton was able to attend Trinity University to obtain her teachers’ degree, because ministers’ children could attend for free. She also went for training in San Marcos.

After the Barrs moved to Harper, Mary Linton taught there for one year and then at Willow City. Later she taught at Flat Rock School (riding there on horseback). After Lewis passed away, Mary Linton taught again at Harper and then in Ingram.

Mary Virginia had a happy childhood, she said. She was able to attend the University of Texas, where she and her best friend double dated — her date turned out to be George Holekamp, who had attended Tivy High School at the same time she did, but they had never met.

After marrying, the couple kept up their ranching operations, and still maintain their livestock, as well as actively pursuing memberships in land and water conservation organizations. They have five children: Lin, Lewis, Anna, Stephanie and Steven, who are all interested in keeping up the family’s ranching tradition.

Another member of the family tree now living in Harper is Martha Stevens. She is the granddaughter of Andrew and Mary Elizabeth Stevens’ son, James Oliver and his wife, Annie Ellen Wedekind. The Wedekinds have their own long-time history in Hunt and Harper, she said, which is another story in itself.

Martha’s parents were Homer Lee and Marguerite Wendel Stevens of Harper.

Martha now single-handedly publishes the weekly newspaper, Harper News, in addition to maintaining the town’s newly-expanded library.