Cow Camp Massacre on Hondo Creek

The author who preserved this account had grown up on the frontier he wrote about. Andrew Jackson Sowell was born at Seguin in 1848 and raised in Sowell's Valley on the Blanco River in Hays County. He joined the Texas Rangers and took part in the campaign against the Wichitas in 1870 and 1871, scouting, trailing and fighting in encounters he later recorded. Besides Early Settlers and Indian Fighters of Southwest Texas, published in 1890, he wrote Rangers and Pioneers of Texas, Life of Big Foot Wallace and a history of Fort Bend County. He died in 1921.

What the plaque says

Cow Camp Massacre on Hondo Creek During the mid-1800s the Texas Hill Country was the site of many hostile encounters, some deadly, between pioneer immigrants whose permanent settlements ran counter to area Native Americans accustomed to unrestrained hunting and gathering. One such encounter occurred near this site on January 27, 1866. Three young men from the area, August Rothe, age 19, George Miller, age 16, and Hubert Weynand, age 12, left their homes near D'Hanis to recover stray livestock, an important task for area farmers and ranchers. They set up camp on Hondo Creek and began the "cow hunt." On the morning of the third day Rothe and Weynand were returning to camp when suddenly Miller appeared running toward them with eight Indians in pursuit. Unable to untie their horses in time to escape on horseback, both Rothe and Miller ran for their lives up a hill; Weynand attempted his escape on horseback. The encounter resulted in Miller's death, Weynand's capture, and Rothe's heroic escape. Weynand was never seen nor heard from again. A scouting party later found Miller's mutilated body but were unable to apprehend the attackers. Contemporary author A.J. Sowell wrote of these events in his book, "Early Settlers and Indian Fighters of Southwest Texas." 1994

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Frontier Times Museum — 15 mi
  A museum built of fossils, petrified wood and cave formations in Bandera, holding a printer-historian's collection of frontier relics and oddities.
• Lost Maples State Natural Area — 27 mi
  A canyon of the upper Sabinal where a relict stand of bigtooth maples turns color each autumn, a sight that drew crowds up a gravel road long before there was a park.
• Landmark Inn State Historic Site — 27 mi
  A store and stage stop at the Medina River ford in Henri Castro's Alsatian town, with a mill race under the ground and rooms you can still rent for the night.

More markers nearby

• Clark Family Cemetery — 13 mi
• Vandenburg — 13 mi
• Bandera Historic Town Center — 15 mi
• Captain Jack Phillips — 15 mi