Johnson Fork Colony

Duane's take

Here's how the marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it to you. Way out in Kimble County, there's a fork in the Llano River called the Johnson Fork, and right there on its banks stands one of the very first settlements the county ever knew. They called it the Johnson Fork Colony, and the name didn't come from a person or a legend or a tall tale.

It came straight from the land itself, from that bend in the river where the colony took root. The land had belonged to Samuel Maverick before that, a famed pioneer Texas cattleman whose name was already known across the territory. But it was the Wiley Joy family who showed up in the early eighteen hundreds and decided this was the place.

This was home. Now, the Joy family didn't just build a house and call it a day. They built a gravity irrigation system, which if you stop and think about it, is the kind of quiet engineering that doesn't get nearly enough credit in the history books.

They put up a rock fence. They raised a two-room log house. And here's the part that ought to give you a little chill: traces of all of it still remain.

Out there on that riverbank, if you know where to look, the work of that family is still in the ground. By the end of the Civil War, what had started as one family's homestead had grown into something bigger. Eight families were calling it home, and folks had taken to calling it the Joy settlement, after the family that started it all.

It became a watering place, a stop for troops and travelers passin' through. And then, as the trails got busier and the land got more traveled, it became a stage stop. One family, one river fork, one rock fence, one two-room log house, and in time, a whole little world grew up around it.

That's the Johnson Fork Colony. And it's still out there, if you've got the eyes to see it.

What the marker says

One of first settlements in Kimble County, founded early 1806's on land once owned by Samuel Maverick, famed pioneer Texas cattleman. Name of the colony was taken from its site on the Johnson Fork of the Llano River. Settled by Wiley Joy family, who built gravity irrigation system, rock fence, 2-room log house, traces of which still remain. By end of Civil War was home of 8 families, called the Joy settlement; it became a watering place for troops and travelers; later a stage stop. (1967)