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"On the first day of the year Adolph Korn, ten, was made a captive, taken from his Texas Hill Country home near Castell (in Llano County). In the spring, on 16 May 1870 Herman Lehmann, ten, and his eight-year- old brother Willie were..." "... would be murdered near Castell in nearby Llano County, possibly a case of mistaken identity..." Read more Look inside

Stories told and Illustrated by Brian Larremore and written by Jean Larremore

Brian was born in 1945 in Llano, Texas. His father, Wilma, and mother Lucille Larremore taught Brian responsibility at an early age. He grew up on horseback, on a pig farm, chasing coons up trees, fighting his brothers, and looking after his sister. Although he had a hard childhood, he never complained. He felt then, as he still feels, that his childhood taught him how to survive and make the most of bad situations ... He started college at Sul Ross in Alpine in 1965, got a degree in English, and went back later to get his police Officer's license in 1986. Brian was a Police Officer for 21 years at Sul Ross State University, Alpine Texas, and was a Deputy Sheriff for 3 years in Brewster County. He retired in January of 2012 and has gone back to his first love --- ranching . . . Read more Look inside

by Daniel J. Gelo, C. B. "Hoppy" Hopkins (Author), Christopher J. Wickham and Bryden E. Moon Jr

The story takes place in the Texas Hill Country in what was then Gillespie County and is now Llano County near present day Castell. "The 'Fortiers or Darmstadt Forty'...in the fall of 1847...migrated by ox wagon train across the Llano [River] and selected a site on the north side....They named their commune Bettina in honor of the Italo-German writer, artist, and activist Bettina von Arnim." "Around 1848 Wilheim Fredrich...completed three drawings that capture unique details of life on the frontier. Fredrich's sketches feature Comanches, Germans, a captive girl, a wagon train, the landscape and wildlife of the Texas Hill Country and dynamic scenes of cultural contact....The Authors use their expertise in Comanche Culture, German immigration, art, and Hill Country history to explore the many layers of meaning in Fredrich's drawings..." Read more

by Eddie L. Barnes from Horseshoe Bay Texas

In a country ravaged by the horrors of a brutal civil war, there were countless families torn apart by conflict and violence. This is the story of one ordinary man driven by loss to extraordinary acts and circumstances. Simon James Sublette lost his entire family during the Civil War. He dreams of coming home and settling into a quiet, peaceful life on his family farm-until those dreams are shattered by a stray bullet . . . Read more Look inside

His life, from humble beginnings as an Oklahoma farm boy to a multi-millionaire real estate developer. "It was about a mile from the small town of Kingsland, Texas where the Colorado River and the Llano River meet and flower into Lake LBJ. A developer had bought about three or four acres which was the site of a famous fishing lodge for ..." Read more Look inside

by Dolores Ann DuBois

Beautiful poetry and thoughts based on the life of the author. "I was then moved to Kingsland, Texas, in a government project, Kingsland's Towne Park Drive housing, for sixty-five years of age or older or disabled. I was there eight years and a new manager and her maintenance man would go through my ..." Read more

"Eloy Baines openly admits he enjoys being a Neanderthal—almost as much as he enjoys the game of golf and cavorting with his pals on the Texas Panhandle Bar-B-Que Circuit. When he is not golfing, he is drowning his troubles in a glass of scotch and writing poetry. Luckily, he has his pals to keep him focused on his favorite things: golf, hard booze, and soft women..." "Author Eddie L. Barnes, owner of the Golf Lab in Cottonwood Shores, Texas, lives with his wife, Carole, in Horseshoe Bay, Texas. He plays golf whenever possible and enjoys writing both frivolous and serious novels. This is his fifth book. Read more Look inside

Lake LBJ and the Re-Birth of Kingsland tells the story of a dying town and a rising political star. The former frontier outpost turned railroad resort had almost faded away when Lyndon Johnson entered the political arena. His amazing rise affected Kingsland in many ways even before he bought a lakefront ranch there in 1961, but when he became president in 1963, Kingsland became "the boomingest town in the Lone Star State." This book, from interviews with old-timers and newspaper accounts from those exciting years, tells part of the story of "Lyndon's Lake" and the small town of Kingsland . . . Read more

Nine Years Among the Indians, 1870-1879: The Story of the Captivity and Life of a Texan Among the Indians

by Herman Lehmann

Here is a genuine Little Big Man story, with all the color, sweep, and tragedy of a classic American western. It is the tale of Herman Lehmann, a captive of the Apaches on the Southern Plains of Texas and New Mexico during the 1870s. Adopted by a war chief, he was trained to be a warrior and waged merciless war on Apache enemies, both Indian and Euro-American. "My mother died at Castell , Texas , in 1912 , at a very old age ; my brother Willie , who was captured by the Apaches at the same time I was captured , and who escaped from them a few days later , lives near Loyal Valley , Texas , yet ..." Read more Look inside

"It was a calm, cool summer evening in 1865 when Wallace Head rode into Castell, Texas. It in 1865 as Wallace seemed like a quiet enough town, untouched by the bitterness of the war. A jackrabbit suddenly perked her ears, revealing herself, as she listened for ..." Joe Lopez is the story of an old Mexicano named José Villalobo Alfredo Thomaso Vincente Lopez who loses his three sons to the Civil War: Thomaso at the Battle of Bull Run, Alfredo in Vicksburg, and Vincente in Gettysburg. To honor them, Joe carries each of their names. But Joe’s sorrow doesn’t end there. When he returns home, he finds that his home has been burned to the ground and his wife and grandson are missing..." Read more Look inside

"A new kind of book based on historical research, which tells a previously untold story set in the 1800s of the relationship between an African-American missionary and one of the greatest preachers to ever live. Johnson, an American slave, born into captivity and longing for freedom--- Spurgeon, an Englishman born into relative ease and comfort, but, longing too for a freedom of his own. Their respective journeys led to an unlikely meeting and an even more unlikely friendship..." The authors thank Gary Schwarz for providing beautiful, open spaces for us to dream and write; and Matt Kirk, Randy Leifeste, and the amazing people of the Castell General Store in Castell, Texas, for keeping us fed during the long weekends of writing . . . Read more Look inside

From the tapestry of human history and experience, some individuals rise above the fabric's common braid and seem destined for great achievements. Richard Fisher was one of these souls. "Roslyn and her husband, Gary, moved into the Texas Hill Country and later established a ranch near Castell, Texas. Dick thoroughly enjoyed living in his new home. The neighbors often saw him happily mowing his thirteen-acre yard and ..." Read more

by Dr. Daniel J. Gelo

"To the northwest of Fredericksburg, on the north bank of the Llano River, are three colonies that were settled from Fredericksburg in 1847: Bettina, Castell, and Leiningen..." In 1851, an article appeared in a German journal, Geographisches Jahrbuch (Geographic Yearbook), that sought to establish definitive connections, using language observations, among the Comanches, Shoshones, and Apaches..." . . . Read more Look inside

"It may even rank as high on the Top-Ten-Inventions-Of-All-Time List as Post-It Notes, Dr. Brown's celery soda, and the barbecued ribs at the general store in Castell, Texas.” “That sounds like I'm going to have some important..." Interwoven between scathing indictments of the American president and international jihadism, is a story of terrorism, foreign intrigue, incompetence at the highest levels of the American government, and creative patriotism . . . Read more Look inside.

"Searching a little further, she found five additional deposits of $500,000 each in small-town banks: Rolling Hills, Wyoming; Conifer, Colorado; Torreon, New Mexico; Castell, Texas; and Beowawe, Nevada. All deposits were made on the same ...Two Las Vegas mosques are destroyed. We know who did it; but what was discovered at the sites of the destruction is just the beginning of uncovering a much more sinister plot to overthrow the government and culture of the United States. Aided by subversive officials in high places within the American government, international jihadism is firmly entrenched within the apparatus of the U.S. intelligence community... Read more Look inside

by Leon Claire Metz

"The Texas Rangers had arrested him once, charged him with an attempt to kill, then couldn't prove it and turned him ... Three months later, on May 13, Mason County deputy sheriff John Worley rode to Castell, Texas, to take custody of an ..." Read more

"...Llano River, near Castell, Texas. Site of Adolph Korn capture. Korn tried to raise sheep for a neighbor, then moved farther west to the Saline Valley, but the country was rougher and Indian attacks were more frequent, ..." Read more Look inside

In the nineteenth century, Texas’s advancing western frontier was the site of one of America’s longest conflicts between white settlers and native peoples. "In 1847 five small settlements---Castell, Lininigen, Schoenburg, Meerholz, and Bettina---were begun on the north side of the river, but after the early 1850s only the community of Castell Survived. By 1848 the Adelsverein was bankrupt... Read more Look inside

In the Hill Country today more than in any other place in Texas, this European culture from the Adelsverein colonists has lingered into the twentieth century. In a letter written on August 12, 1853 from Castell, Texas, Franz Kettner ... Read more

"Randy Leifeste, has the old General Store in Castell, Texas. About a year and a half ago he suggested I make burgers on Thursday and Friday at lunch. My daughter and friends have always loved my burger..." Read more Look inside

"Lake Buchanan is the uppermost Highland Lake and the largest in surface area: 22,335 acres. Completed in 1937, the two- mile-long Buchanan Dam is the longest multiple-arch dam in the United States. This form of construction is no longer ..." Read more Look inside

"Just 5 miles west of Inks Lake via Highway 29, across the line into Llano County, is the town of Buchanan Dam, sitting on the lovely Lake Buchanan. Only 1,600 people call it home, but it's a busy place in mild..."Texas Off the Beaten Path features the things travelers and locals want to see and experience––if only they knew about them.  Read more Look inside

"...Looking downstream from Buchanan Dam during the release of water during the 1938..." How many times have you heard the television or radio alert, “We are now under a flash flood watch”? While the destructive force of flash flooding is a regular occurrence in the state and has caused a tremendous amount of damage and heartache over the years, no one until now has recorded in a single book the history of flash floods in Texas. . . . Read more Look inside

by Bob Alexander

"Due to unremitting lawlessness in Llano County, the Frontier Battalion management team had deduced that a detachment of Company D Ranger should take up residence at Bluffton, northeast of the county seat." Frank Jones’s law enforcing life was anything but boring. Not only would he find himself dodging bullets and returning fire, but those Rangers under his supervision would also experience gunplay. Of all the Texas Ranger companies, Company D contributed the highest number of on-duty deaths within Texas Ranger ranks ..." Read more Look inside

"The “Bluffton boys” sought to nullify the Whig tariff of 1842, called for the annexation of Texas as a slave state, and threatened to secede from the Union if southern demands were not met. “Texas or disunion” became a popular phrase in ..." Read more Look inside

"By this letter, the undersigned agrees to compensate John Barringer of Bluffton, Texas in return for building a simple wooden abode for the undersigned to live within. In return, John Barringer is to receive title to a 24-acre parcel of..." Against this backdrop, John Barringer, an uneducated carpenter living a simple life, discovers a mother lode of rare earth minerals in his newly acquired property-Barringer Hill. These minerals include gadolinite, a highly sought-after substance used in "glowers" for electric streetlamps and worth seven times the price of gold ..." Read more Look inside

by John Holmes Jenkins

The Story of Old Bluffton Texas , Now Deep in Buchanan Lake . . . Read more.

Resources:

West Texas History & Memories

Early Life in Texas County by County

Books about Texas People and Places

Amazing People from Texas County by County