McAnelly Settlement

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the McAnelly Settlement, out in Lampasas County. Now, some places earn their names, and some places earn their history, and every once in a while, a single family earns both. Robert D.

McAnelly was born in 1806, and by the early 1830's, he had made his way out to what would become Lampasas and San Saba counties, back when that land was about as settled as a spooked horse. He put down roots right there, on a homestead site that this marker calls the threshold for settlement of those two counties. That's not a small thing.

That is the door that everything else walked through. McAnelly didn't just homestead, though. He got to work surveying large areas of the surrounding land, walking and marking the ground that other families would eventually call their own.

By 1858, the bend in the land that bore his footprints got an official name: McAnelly's Bend. Named for him, the marker tells us, plain and simple. And then there's Cornelius.

Robert's son. The first white child born in Lampasas County. Think about that for just a moment.

A man arrives on the raw edge of Texas, surveys the wilderness around him, and raises a family right there in the middle of it. Robert D. McAnelly lived until 1888, long enough to see that threshold he'd crossed in the early 1830's become a place with names on the map and history in the ground.

Some men pass through the door. Robert McAnelly built it.

What the marker says

Threshold for settlement of Lampasas, San Saba counties. Commemorates homestead site of Robert D. McAnelly (1806-1888) who came here in early 1830's; was surveyor of large areas of surrounding land. McAnelly's Bend was named for him in 1858. His son, Cornelius, was first white child born in Lampasas County.