Kendall County

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Kendall County. Out here in the Texas Hill Country, counties have a way of arrivin fast when the need is felt.

This one was created January tenth, 1862, and organized just five weeks later, February eighteenth, 1862. That is a county that knew what it wanted to be. Now, the name.

The county carries the name of George Wilkins Kendall, born in 1809, gone in 1867. And if you were going to hang a county's name on a man, you could do a whole lot worse than this particular man. George Wilkins Kendall was a poet.

A journalist. An author. A farmer.

The kind of person who apparently could not sit still long enough to be just one thing. He was one of the founders of the New Orleans Picayune, which tells you he had ink in his blood from the start. He was a member of the Santa Fe Expedition, which tells you he also had a taste for the kind of adventure that does not always end comfortably.

And then, as if the writing and the expeditioning were not enough, he became the most successful sheep raiser in the Southwest. Right here. Out of Boerne, the county seat.

A poet and journalist who ended up running the most successful sheep operation in the whole Southwest. Now that is a life that does not fit neatly in a single column, no matter how good a newspaper you're writing for. Kendall County.

Named for a man who kept surprising people, apparently right up until the end.

What the marker says

Kendall County; created January 10, 1862; organized February 18, 1862. Named in honor of George Wilkins Kendall, 1809-1867; poet, journalist, author and farmer. One of the founders of the New Orleans Picayune; member of the Santa Fe Expedition; most successful sheep raiser in the Southwest, Boerne, the county seat