Liendo

Duane's take

Here's how the marker on Liendo tells it, and I'll give it to you straight from the record. Now picture this. The year is 1853, and a man named Leonard W.

Groce sets his mind to building something out here in Waller County that the land would remember. A plantation home. And not just any house thrown up against the Texas heat.

This place was built to receive people, to welcome them, to hold them a while. For many years, Liendo became the scene of lavish Southern hospitality. The kind of hospitality that gets talked about long after the candles burn down.

But that's only the opening chapter. On March 4, 1873, Liendo changed hands. The man who purchased it was Dr.

Edmund Duncan Montgomery, born in 1835, and the marker calls him world-famed philosopher. That is not a small title to carry. And he did not arrive alone.

He came with his wife, Elisabet Ney, born in 1833, and the marker names her the pioneer sculptress of Texas. A philosopher and a sculptress, settling into a plantation home on the Texas soil. You couldn't write two more interesting people into the same story if you tried.

And here's the thing about Liendo. It wasn't just a purchase, a transaction, a line in a deed. It became their homestead.

They kept it throughout their lives. This was the place they chose, and they held onto it. Both Dr.

Montgomery and Elisabet Ney are buried in the grounds of Liendo. The home that Leonard Groce built in 1853 became, in the end, the final resting place of a world-famed philosopher and the woman who helped shape what Texas art could be. Some places just hold on to the people who love them.

Liendo is one of those places.

What the marker says

A plantation home built in 1853 by Leonard W. Groce. The scene for many years of lavish Southern hospitality. Purchased March 4, 1873, by Dr. Edmund Duncan Montgomery 1835-1911), world-famed philosopher, and his wife, Elisabet Ney (1833-1907), pioneer sculptress of Texas. Retained as their homestead throughout their lives. Both are buried in the grounds.