Catherine McLauren

The Lipan Apaches, who had long lived in and traveled the Frio Canyon country, were under heavy pressure by 1881. Between 1873 and 1881 the U.S. Army made at least eleven incursions across the Rio Grande, and Mexico three campaigns, against Lipan communities in northern Coahuila. Small groups of Lipans went onto the Mescalero Apache reservation in New Mexico in 1882 and 1885 under Chief Magoosh, and a last group followed in 1905 after eviction from El Remolino. Many stayed in Texas and Coahuila, and in 2019 Texas recognized the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas.

What the plaque says

Catherine McLauren A victim of the last Indian raid in Frio Canyon, April 19, 1881. Mother of three small children, "Kate" McLauren was home with them and a neighbor boy, Allen Lease, when a Lipan Apache band started to plunder their house. Although shot with a bullet, she sent her six-year-old child, Maud, for help, but died shortly after her husband John's return that night. When the cemetery in Leakey was established, she and Lease were the first burials. Recorded 1971

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Real County Historical Museum — 0.3 mi
  A small county museum in Leakey, at the head of the Frio Canyon, with a log-cabin parlor, an 1880s horse-drawn hearse, a wool and mohair shearing machine and 1910s jail cells.
• Garner State Park — 8.7 mi
  The Frio River park that Uvalde County built with the Civilian Conservation Corps and named for its own vice president, where people have danced on the stone pavilion every summer since the 1940s.
• Devil's Sinkhole State Natural Area — 34 mi
  A 140-foot shaft into a cavern outside Rocksprings, seen only on guided tours from a platform at the rim as some three million bats spiral out on summer evenings.

More markers nearby

• Leakey Cemetery — steps away
• Real County — steps away
• Real County — steps away
• John Leakey — 0.2 mi