HCAA Field Crew Surveys Historic Shepherd’s Home near Boerne
On April 3 and May 2, 2014 Frank Binetti (crew chief) and John Benedict surveyed the remains of a historic 1850’s shepherd’s home site, HCAA KE-10, near the city of Boerne in Kendall County. This home is on a creek terrace overlooking the original pasture land belonging to George W. Kendall (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fke19). It is a short distance from a spring fed creek and on the old Pinta trail. George was known as the “Father of Texas Sheep Ranching” and the person whom Kendall County was named after. One of the first shepherds to work for George was Joe Tait, a sheepherder from Scotland, who likely lived in this home. By 1859 George had approximately 3,500 sheep in his herds.
With metal detectors and visual searching we found large quantities of glass, ceramic and metal fragments on the ground surface near the home. Much of the metal fragments were wire, rusty sheet metal, and fence staples. Square nails were used to nail the wood structure together. The photo on left is of the remains of timbers probably used for walls or roof. They contained the square nails.
The photo on the right is Frank measuring the length of the foundation from east to west. The home was approximately 57 ft x 15 ft with a large fire place on the north west side. Most of the stone foundation and floo
ring has been removed by the current landowner and used in his modern home construction and as flooring for his patio. This is very common practice for the materials in historic structures to be utilized by later generations (J. Benedict 5-17-2014).