DUANE
Duane's take
The way the marker tells it, here's the story of Harmonson Rancho — and it's one worth hearin' all the way through. Peter Harmonson was a Kentucky man, born in 1797, and by 1845 he'd made his way to Texas as a settler in the Peters Colony. He didn't waste any time makin' himself useful.
The very next year — 1846 — he helped form Denton County, and the people there trusted him enough to make him their first sheriff. That's the kind of man who shows up somewhere new and immediately starts buildin' something. But Peter Harmonson wasn't done buildin'.
In 1854, he packed up his family and pushed out to Young County, establishing a ranch near this very site — a place that came to be known as Harmonson Rancho. And again, just like in Denton County, the community looked to him for leadership. He helped organize Young County itself, and he served as its first chief justice.
First sheriff of one county, first chief justice of another. The man had a way of arrivin' just ahead of civilization. Then comes the part that sits heavy.
Peter Harmonson, born in 1797, died in 1865 — not in a courtroom, not quietly on his ranch. He died from a wound received in an Indian raid on the Elm Creek community. The frontier had a way of not carin' how much a man had built.
And the story doesn't end there. In 1869, after the ranch had been sold, the old Harmonson ranch site became the ground for yet another chapter. Peter's son, Z.
J. — known as Jack — Harmonson, found himself right in the middle of a skirmish between Indians and local cattlemen at that same place his father had staked out fifteen years before. Some ground just keeps drawin' history to it. And this piece of Young County, the old Harmonson Rancho, earned every bit of what's been said about it.
What the marker says
Kentucky native Peter Harmonson (1797-1865) came to Texas in 1845 as a settler in the Peters Colony. The following year he helped form Denton County, where he served as the first sheriff. In 1854 he brought his family here and established a ranch near this site known as Harmonson Rancho. An organizer of Young County, he served as its first chief justice. He died from a wound received in an Indian raid on the Elm Creek community. In 1869, after it was sold, his ranch site and his son Z. J. "Jack" Harmonson figured in a skirmish between Indians and local cattlemen.