On the Road to Paisano Ranch

If you read Deb's blog (http://murphywasanavywife.blogspot.com/2012/11/san-antonio.html) she talked about our San Antonio trip.  In my study of our Shaw/Krieger genealogy, I discovered my Great Great Grandfather Fredric Kunze bought a ranch near Austin, Texas.  So a trip to the ranch was a piece of our genealogy I wanted to explore.  Our family tree is a hobby, one of my loves and clearly an understanding of who our ancestors were, what they experienced as they came to America and the challenges they faced and overcame. The trip to Paisano Ranch was another one of those journeys of a lifetime, and so in this blog I will take you with Deb and me on the Road to Paisano Dobie Ranch.

My great great grandfather Fredric Kunze arrived in America at Houston in 1853. Two years later he made a Declaration of Intent for Naturalization, and was naturalized as a citizen of America in November of 1857.  On 16 Feb 1863 he married Lucy Henderson Scribner in Travis County, Texas near Austin.  On 14 August that year they purchased 160 acres of land West Southwest of Austin, Texas.  Research on this property uncovered information the ranch is now called Paisano (Roadrunner) Dobie Ranch and is owned by the University of Texas. It's serving a two-fold purpose: preserving the ranch as a historical piece along with it's essentially pure areas of native Texas grasses, and providing a secluded place for aspiring writers to spend six uninterrupted months working on manuscripts. I'd corresponded with Michael Adams who manages the program and he graciously offered to meet us at the "locked" gate to the ranch and provide a tour and photo opportunity.  The only restriction was we had to work around the onsite writer--not a problem if we could see the outside buildings, get more understanding of what my gggrandfather faced as he arrived to this virgin property, and what it took to build two cabins which still stand erect on the property one hundred forty nine years later.

The road to the property enters through the gate above with the Paisano decorating the middle of it.  On the attached map, the road comes in from the South and meanders North.  Near the norther point where the road swings back to the Southwest, there is a side road off to the right.  It leads to a cabin which is believed to be a secondary cabin, the main cabin being at the end of the main road after crossing Burton Creek.  It may be the "main" cabin was designated as such because it was larger then the one on the side road.  I believe it's possible Frederic built the secondary cabin first, and then when they were settled, they built the larger cabin and the surrounding buildings. 

As we were led to the smaller cabin we were greeted by a couple of turkeys browsing in the cleared area around the cabin.  Since the area has not been "improved" the grasses on the property are virgin Texas prairie grasses one time browsed by feral Texas long horns. The horns from the last one to roam the property were saved when he died and are mounted in the main cabin.

The cabins are of a Swedish/German design common to the area where my gggrandfather lived in Europe.  The University indicates this is further confirmation he was the builder.  On this first cabin there is a second story, fully enclosed except for an opening on the East side.  A ladder could be placed there, and in the event of raids by either Comanches or Confederate raiding parties the occupants would climb to the second floor, pull up the ladder and close the door to the opening.  These raids, by renegade Southerners and Comanches were documented as late as 1869 along Burton Creek.