DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Bear Creek Settlement, Kimble County. It starts, as so many Texas stories do, with one man and a patch of raw land.
Back in the 1850s, a rancher by the name of Raleigh Gentry came out here and put down roots — two-room log house, small farm cleared out of the brush. That's a life built with your hands, and it's no small thing. But by 1862, Gentry sold out to a cattleman named Rance Moore, and just like that, the place changed hands and changed character.
Cattle country now. Then came the 1860s settlers, rolling in one by one — Wm. and Lane Gibson, Charlie Jones, John New, A. J.
Nixon, Billie Waites. Names on a list that don't tell you much, except that each one of them made the same bet: that this place was worth staying in. Now here's where the story gets its shadow.
Others held off. The 1870s brought more settlers to Bear Creek, but only after — and that word does a lot of work — only after raids by Indians and outlaws were ended. Whatever it took to make this land feel safe enough to stay, it took until the 1870s.
Then they came. Bear Creek Settlement. Started by one rancher with a log house and a dream, passed along, filled in slow and hard.
That's how a place gets made out here.
What the marker says
Started in 1850s by rancher Raleigh Gentry, who built a 2-room log house and cleared a small farm, but in 1862 sold out to cattlemen Rance Moore. 1860s settlers included Wm. and Lane Gibson, Charlie Jones, John New, A. J. Nixon, Billie Waites. Others came in 1870s after raids by Indians and outlaws were ended.