San Antonio Conservation Society Journal
San Antonio Conservation Society Journal
Volunme 41, NO.4 Fall 2005
Preserving Pioneer Settlers' Houses in Bexar County
by Bruce MacDougal
Life was tough. With Indian raids still a threat, imagine what it was like to maintain a homestead in Bexar County in the early to mid 1800s.Yet farmers and ranchers with surnames Perez, Cadena, Herrera, Woller, Huebner, Hermann, White, Jones and Applewhite built their farmsteads out of materials locally available: native cut stone, rubble stone, logs, poles, and cut planks. Often the builders utilized craftsman skills brought from their homeland, enhancing their simple structures. Others utilized building traditions from the Southern United States or the simple building techniques brought to the area by Spanish era settlers. It would still be a quarter of a century until Fort Sam Houston would bring tranquility to the frontier and the railroad would make brick and manufactured building materials available to the burgeoning communities around San Antonio. Read more.