Isaac Kountz

Spanish soldiers crossed this country long before the settlers: Jose de Urrutia led a campaign against the Apaches through it in 1739, Pedro de Rabago y Teran passed in 1754, Diego Ortiz Parrilla campaigned against the Apaches in 1759 and the Marques de Rubi inspected the frontier in 1767. The area remained an Indian stronghold into the 1870s. Comanches raided the settlements often until Gen. Ranald S. Mackenzie drove them onto reservations in 1874 and 1875; Lipans and Kickapoos raiding from Mexico made the last serious attack in 1876, and the raids ceased after 1878.

What the plaque says

Isaac Kountz Killed on this spot by Indians on Christmas Eve, 1876. He was 16 years old, and herding sheep for his father, Dr. E. K. Kountz. A brother, Sebastian, age 11, escaped. a posse and Texas Rangers chased the Indians to the Guadalupe River. Young Kountz was buried in Junction Cemetery. (1967)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Kimble County Historical Museum — 1.2 mi
  A free county museum in Junction, the town at the meeting of the North and South Llano, with the papers, photographs and tools of a ranching county.
• Eckert James River Bat Cave Preserve — 28 mi
  A limestone cave on the James River where about four million Mexican free-tailed bats raise their young each summer, kept open to visitors by a family's gift.
• Fort McKavett State Historic Site — 31 mi
  The post Sherman called the prettiest in Texas, home to soldiers of all four Buffalo Soldier regiments and then to a town that lived in its buildings until 1973.

More markers nearby

• Vicinity of Bradbury Settlement — 0.3 mi
• Captain William Walter Taylor — 0.3 mi
• Coach Bear Bryant and the Junction Boys — 0.8 mi
• John James Smith — 1.0 mi