DUANE
Duane's take
The way I tell it, I'm following the account laid down in the official marker — so let's see what it has to say. Now, if you wanted to plant roots in Texas, 1844 was as good a year as any to make the crossing. That's when Edward E.
Zimmerman came over from Germany — stepped onto Texas soil and decided this was the place. He took his time getting settled, the way a careful man does, and by 1854 he had brought his wife Regina Reinhard out to this very spot in the hills above Travis County. Five children would follow, filling that land with voices.
But here's the thing about Edward Zimmerman — he didn't just build a house. In 1861, he built something that was meant to last. He quarried cream colored rock right out of the nearby hills, hand-hewing each piece himself, and he hauled lumber in from the mills up on Bull Creek.
What he raised up was an early Texas farmhouse that could hold its own against time, weather, and whatever else the frontier cared to throw at it. And the frontier did have opinions, because this was no quiet backwater they'd chosen. Their homestead sat along the route of the Shawnee Trail — one of those old roads that carried the whole wide world past your front gate.
Traders moved along it. Immigrants pushed through it. Indians traveled it.
And in the eighteen-fifties and sixties, cattlemen made it famous, driving herds up that same worn path. The Zimmermans were among the first families living along that route, which means they watched all of it go by. Which brings me to Regina.
Now the marker doesn't tell us the year, doesn't tell us the season, doesn't even tell us what kind of morning it was. What it tells us is this: Regina Reinhard Zimmerman once shot a bear at the back door. Not in the field.
Not at some safe distance. At the back door. You build a house out of hand-hewn rock from the hills, you haul your lumber up from Bull Creek, you raise five children on a cattle trail with the whole frontier walking past — and then a bear comes to call at the back door.
And Regina answered. Some houses hold history in their stones. This one holds it in the doorframe too.
What the marker says
Edward E. Zimmerman came to Texas, 1844, from Germany; settled here, 1854, with wife Regina Reinhard. They had 5 children. Zimmerman built this early Texas farmhouse, 1861, of hand-hewn cream colored rock from nearby hills; lumber from Bull Creek mills. One of first residences on route of Shawnee Trail (used by traders, immigrants, Indians and famous as a cattle trail in 1850's and 1860's). Regina once shot a bear at back door. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1967