DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker says about the site of the Reuben Hornsby home, out here in Travis County. Now, most folks driving through Travis County today don't give a second thought to the ground beneath their wheels. But there was a time — and we're talkin' 1832 — when Reuben Hornsby and his wife Sarah Morrison Hornsby looked out over this very land and decided: this is the place.
They built a home here, and it became the second home built in what was known as Austin's Little Colony. Second in the colony — but first, and don't let anybody tell you different, first in what would become Travis County itself. Reuben Hornsby was born in 1793.
Sarah Morrison Hornsby in 1796. Together they made something out here that was more than four walls and a roof. The marker calls it a place famed for Christian hospitality, and if you know anything about frontier Texas, you understand what that really meant.
This wasn't a bed and breakfast situation. This was a home that opened its doors when the world outside those doors was not what you'd call forgiving. And here's where the story takes a dark and almost unbelievable turn.
In 1833 — just one year after that home went up — a man named Josiah Wilbarger came to this doorstep. Wilbarger had been scalped. He recovered here, in this house, under this roof.
Let that settle over you for a moment. The Hornsby home was where a man came back from the edge of something most men don't come back from. But the Hornsbys weren't the kind of family to only receive the wounded.
Reuben Hornsby and his sons fought in many Indian battles and served as scouts. And in 1836, right here on this ground, Captain John J. Tumlinson organized his company of Rangers.
This site wasn't just a home — it was a muster point, a gathering place for men who were shaping what Texas was going to be. Sarah Morrison Hornsby lived until 1862. Reuben until 1879.
The State of Texas erected this marker in 1936, making sure the story of this place — this home built on the frontier, this shelter for the wounded, this birthplace of a Ranger company — wouldn't just blow away with the dust. Some ground has a way of holding its history. This is that kind of ground.
What the marker says
Site of the Home Built in 1832 by Reuben Hornsby (1793-1879) and his wife Sarah Morrison Hornsby (1796-1862). Second built in "Austin's Little Colony". First in the present county of Travis. Famed for Christian hospitality. Here Josiah Wilbarger recovered after being scalped in 1833. Mr. Hornsby and his sons fought in many Indian battles and served as scouts in Capt. John J. Tumlinson's company of Rangers which was orgianized here in 1836. Erected by the State of Texas 1936