DUANE
Duane's take
The way the official marker tells it, here's what happened out on Brushy Creek — and I won't add a single word the stone doesn't earn. Mid-winter, 1839. Williamson County was still raw country, and the tension between Comanche raiders and the Anglo settlers putting down roots there had already been building to something ugly.
A skirmish between Comanche raiders and a local militia near this very spot was all it took to strike the match. The Comanche retaliated. February 18, 1839.
That's the date the marker gives, and it does not soften what happened. They came hard, attacking several area homes. Among them, the home of Mrs.
Robert Coleman. Among them, the home of Dr. J.
W. Robertson. Mrs.
Coleman and her son Albert were killed. Another son, Tommy, was taken captive. Seven of Robertson's slaves were taken captive as well.
Now, when settlers along that frontier heard what had happened, there was no sitting still for it. What followed moved to the banks of Brushy Creek, right in this neighborhood of land. And the battle that broke out there did not come without a cost — a cost measured in names.
Jacob Burleson. Edward Blakely. The Reverend James Gilleland.
John B. Walters. Four men who did not come home from Brushy Creek.
The marker calls it the last major battle between Anglo settlers and Indians in Williamson County. Last. That word carries weight when you're standing on the ground where it happened — because last doesn't mean easy, and it sure doesn't mean clean.
It means this is where it ended, and these are the names of the people who were in it when it did.
What the marker says
A skirmish between Comanche raiders and a local militia near here in mid-winter (1839) led to the last major battle between Anglo settlers and Indians in Williamson County. The Comanche retaliated on February 18, 1839, by attacking several area homes, including those of Mrs. Robert Coleman and Dr. J. W. Robertson. Mrs. Coleman and her son, Albert, were killed. Another son, Tommy, and seven of Robertson's slaves were taken captive. The ensuing battle along nearby Brushy Creek claimed the lives of Jacob Burleson, Edward Blakely, the Rev. James Gilleland, and John B. Walters. (1993)