Hix Ranch House, 1870

Duane's take

The official marker's the word on this one, and here's how I tell it. Out here in Bandera County, there's a ranch house that's been standing since 1870, and the story behind it is the kind that makes you stop and look a little closer at the stonework. The man who had it built was Fabian L.

Hicks, a county official and a Texas Ranger, and when it came time to put up a proper home, he didn't just throw something together. He had a picture in his mind, a clear one, of his family's home back in North Carolina, and he was going to match it as best he could on Texas ground. Now think about what that took.

The stone came from the ranch itself. The cypress wood came from the ranch itself. And the hardware, every hinge, every fitting, every piece of iron a man needed to hold a house together, that came by ox wagon all the way from San Antonio.

Not a quick trip. Not a simple one. But it got there.

The house that rose up in 1870 replaced something the family had already been living in since 1855, a log cabin that had served them through those years on the Texas frontier. So when Fabian Hicks finally stood back and looked at that stone and cypress structure, he wasn't just looking at a new house. He was looking at a piece of North Carolina, carried in the mind of a Texas Ranger, built by hand from the land around him, and hauled in by ox wagon across the Hill Country.

That house is still there. Still standing. Some things are just built to last.

What the marker says

Built for Fabian L. Hicks, a county official and Texas Ranger who styled it after his family home in North Carolina. Building is stone and cypress wood off ranch. Hardware came by ox wagon from San Antonio. This replaced log cabin family occupied in 1855. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1965