Daniel Murchison, Texas Ranger
Submitted by Karen Matheson
at the Request of the Selma Historical Foundation


HISTORY: Muriel Barnett Jackson, "Families of Early Kingsland, Texas and Nearby Communities in Llano and Burnet Counties" (Kingsland, TX: Kingsland Genealogical Society, 1998), pp. 129-140. My Murchison Family. ...Daniel Murchison was born 6 January 1806 in Moore County, North Carolina. [KJM note: Tombstone appears to give 1809 as year of birth.] He came to Texas in 1836 and settled near Bastrop. He died 22 February 1867 and is buried in Comal Cemetery in New Braunfels, Comal County, TX. On 10 April 1851, he married Wilhelmina Adolphena "Mina" Holzgrefe, daughter of Conrad and Johanna Knuenicke Holzgrefe who immigrated to Texas from Hanover, Germany, aboard the ship "Gerhardt Herman" in 1845. They traveled overland by ox cart from Idianola to Comal County where Mina and Dan met and married. Mina was born 10 August 1835 in Eldagesen, Hanover, Germany. She died 29 August 1873 and is buried at his side in Comal Cemetery. They had seven sons and one daughter. Dan Murchison organized a company of Tennessee Volunteers and fought with General Sam Houston in the battle of San Jacinto. He distinguied himself in this battle and it was here that he was awarded his commission as Captain in the Army of the Republic of Texas. He was paid for his military services with land in Menard County. The deed was signed by General Sam Houston. The old San Saba Mission is located on this land and has been deed to the State by Murchison heirs for a State Park and Historical Museum. He was listed on the tax lists of Travis County in 1840 with 810 acres and one town lot in Austin. He joined the Texas Rangers and became a member of Captain J. C. Hays' Spy Company. He later was in the personal militia of Prince Solms. When it was disbanded in 1845, he became a leader in a pioneer company organized by John Meusebach. By 1850 he was a land agent and surveyor and surveyed many of the early roads and land grants for the area, including the road from New Braunfels to Fredericksburg. He lived in Comal County, which was created in 1846, and operated a grist mill there. He served in the Texas Legislature in 1866 from Comal County and was a delegate to the Texas Constitution Revision Convention in 1866. The Republic of Texas, short on money and long on land, paid Dan Murchison with land for his many surveying jobs that he did for the State. Thus, he amassed large landholdings along the Colorado River in Llano County where Lakes Buchanan and Inks are now located, and both dams are located on Murchison property. When Dan died in 1867, Mina moved with their eight children to their ranch in Llano County. Hugh McCraney, a long-time friend and servant, and Sarah Gardner, her housekeeper, moved with the family and helped Mina run the ranch and raise the children. McCraney died in 1894 and is buried in the Murchison Family Cemetery near Long Mountain in Llano County. Mina died in 1873 in New Braunfels and was buried beside her husband in Comal Cemetery there. They donated the land for the cemetery to the town of New Braunfels. At her death, the estate was divided among the children. William, Frederick, Louis, and Albert received property in Llano County, and Andes, Flora, Daniel and Edward received property in Menard County...

HISTORY: Rudolph Leopold Biesele, "The History of the German Settlements in Texas 1831-1861" (Austin, TX: Press of Von Boeckmann-Jones Co.), pg 139. "Mindful of the fact that the Society was planning to send additional emigrants to Texas in the winter of 1845 to 1846, Meusebachleft New Braunfels in the latter part of August 1845 to find a suitable place for establishing another settlement on the way to the Fisher and Miller grant, thus partially carrying out the plan suggested by Prince Solms for establishing various settlements on the way from Carlshafen to the Llano River. Meusebach found a tract of land north of the Pedernales River, about 80 miles from New Braunfels, which he thought most suitable for the next settlement and on his return to New Braunfels about the end of October he immediately bought 10,000 acres of headrights on credit.The land was good, arable land, well watered and with sufficient wood. Meusebach organized a surveying party of 36 men, well equipped with wagons, tools, provisions, and guns, under the command of Lieutenants Bene and the surveyors Groos and MURCHISON. With instructions to lay out a wagon road from New Braunfels to the new settlement, the expedition left New Braunfels about the middle of December along the route... Footnote: "On February 18, 1846, the Democratic Telegraph and Texas Register, p. 2, cols. 4-5, reported the expedition as follows: 'We learn that Capt. MURCHISON has lately made an expedition with a party of the German emigrants of New Braunfels to the valley of the Perdinalles with a view to selecting a site for a new settlement.'" "After the surveying expedition returned to New Braunfels about the middle of February and reported on its work, preparations were made to send the first settlers to the Pedernales."


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