DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about McLennan's Bluff, out here in Falls County. Now, before it was McLennan's Bluff, folks called it Sugar Loaf. And you can picture why — a lone bluff rising up over Pond Creek, the kind of landmark that early settlers fixed their eyes on when the land around them was still more wild guess than civilized map.
It was a place that told you where you were. And in 1835, a man named Neil McLennan decided it was going to tell him where he lived. Neil McLennan was a native of Scotland — a long way from Falls County, Texas, by any measure.
He had come here on land granted to him as a member of Sterling Clack Robertson's Colony, and he built his home right here on this bluff. His brother Laughlin settled his own family about a mile north of the site. Two brothers, new land, a colony taking shape.
The frontier being pushed, inch by inch. Then came the spring of 1836, and the story turns hard. Indians killed Laughlin McLennan, his wife, and his mother.
Three of Laughlin's sons were captured. One mile north of this very bluff, a family was shattered in a season. That kind of loss doesn't leave a man — or a family — unchanged.
As a result of what happened to Laughlin's family, Neil McLennan and his own kin spent much of their ten years in Falls County in the nearby town of Nashville — a haven for settlers that had been begun by Sterling Robertson himself. Sometimes survival means pulling back before you can push forward again. But Neil McLennan wasn't done reaching.
In 1839, riding as a member of Captain George Erath's scouting expedition, Neil McLennan first laid eyes on a stretch of territory to the west. He didn't settle it right away — no, he held that vision for a while. Then in 1846, he returned.
Built a home. Lived there until his death in 1867. That territory he first glimpsed on Erath's expedition became McLennan County.
And the present town of Rosebud, not far from here, sits on part of Neil McLennan's original land grant. The marker says the McLennan family helped open the frontier for later immigrants as part of the earliest Anglo settlement in this part of Texas. That's a measured way of putting it.
What it means is: they came early, they suffered real loss, they stayed anyway, and they kept moving. Sugar Loaf. That's what they called this bluff once.
Now it carries a family's name — a family from Scotland, by way of Robertson's Colony, by way of grief and persistence and two counties worth of Texas history. Sometimes a landmark names you right back.
What the marker says
Once known as "Sugar Loaf," this bluff overlooking Pond Creek was a landmark to early settlers in area. In 1835, Neil McLennan, a native of Scotland, built his home here, on land that had been granted to him as a member of Sterling Clack Robertson's Colony. The present town of Rosebud is located on part of Neil McLennan's land grant. McLennan's brother Laughlin settled his family about one mile north of this site. During the spring of 1836, Indians killed Laughlin McLennan, his wife and his mother, and captured three of his sons. As a result, the Neil McLennan family spent much of their ten years in Falls County in the nearby town of Nashville, a haven for settlers that had been begun by Sterling Robertson. In 1839, while a member of Capt. George Erath's scouting expedition, Neil McLennan first saw the territory that was to become McLennan County. He returned there in 1846, built a home, and lived there until his death in 1867. As part of the earliest Anglo settlement in this part of Texas, the McLennan family helped open the frontier for later immigrants. Their part in the area's history has been remembered with the naming of this bluff and the neighboring county. (1986)