Magill Family Cemetery

William Harrison Magill came to Texas at twenty-one and in 1835 bought a house in Mina, now Bastrop. That summer he rode with Robert Coleman's rangers, and on the way home in September he accidentally shot a fellow ranger, Moses Smith Hornsby, who refused amputation and died. Magill fought at Concepcion and San Jacinto. In Burnet County he and Logan Vandeveer held the contract to supply Fort Croghan with beef and grain, and he served on the county's first board of commissioners. He also conveyed the Hamilton Falls land to Lyman Wight's Mormon colony.

What the plaque says

Magill Family Cemetery Surrounded by a rock wall, the small pioneer family cemetery just west of this site is located on land that was once part of the William H. Magill homestead. Magill, a veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto, moved his family to Burnet County in 1850. He established this graveyard with the burial of his 15-year-old son, John, in 1863. The remaining four marked graves include William H. Magill (1813-1878); his second wife, Elizabeth (1831-1914); and his parents, Nancy (1792-1865) and Samuel (1783-1865) Magill. At least one unmarked grave is known to exist. (1985)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Longhorn Cavern State Park — 7.8 mi
  A cave carved by an underground river in the Hill Country, cleared of mud by hand in the 1930s and reached down 52 stone steps on a guided tour.
• Inks Lake State Park — 7.9 mi
  A state park on a constant-level lake of the Colorado, between Buchanan and Inks dams, with pink granite and gneiss at the water and CCC work along Park Road 4.
• Inks Dam National Fish Hatchery — 8.9 mi
  A free federal hatchery below Inks Dam on the Colorado, with thirty production ponds that draw birds and a look at how fish are raised from egg to harvest.
• Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge: Doeskin Ranch — 13 mi
  A free federal refuge north of Lake Travis kept for two songbirds that need old juniper and oak, with trails at the Doeskin Ranch unit near Bertram.

More markers nearby

• Peter Kerr — 1.1 mi
• The Burnet Bulletin — 1.2 mi
• Site of Fort Croghan — 1.2 mi
• General Adam R. Johnson — 1.3 mi