As a fifth-generation Texan I have a major interest in preserving and protecting the land and the buildings we have inherited that represent so much hard work and family history. Many of these buildings are well over a hundred years old and in surprisingly good shape. They were "built to last".

My ancestors on my maternal as well as my paternal side came to Texas in the mid- to late- 1800’s and settled in the Spicewood and Smithwick area of Burnet County. They survived hardships the likes of which my generation would probably have considered insurmountable (much less the generation of my great-grandchildren)!

Not only did our ancestors who decided to settle in Burnet County have to contend with the Indians but also the weather which could go from extreme heat to extreme cold in a matter of moments. There were dangerous animals and reptiles such as rattlesnakes, copperheads, water moccasins, mountain lions and bears (there’s a mountain close to the Smithwick community that’s called "Boultinghouse Mountain" due to the fact that my great-great-great grandfather Daniel Boultinghouse killed so many bears there).

There were illnesses that couldn’t be treated because there were no doctors close enough. My father, at the age of 5, lost his father and a baby sister and a brother to tuberculosis within a few weeks of each other; my great-grandmother lost two young sons due to them having ingested a poisonous flowering plant which grew in their yard. The story is that she ripped up everything growing in her yard and refused to have another plant the rest of her life - something any grieving mother would be apt to do.

My ancestors were among the few that started the Church of Christ in Smithwick - one of the oldest churches in Burnet County. The hundred-plus year old church records show that the church was established in 1868. In Volume I of the Burnet County History Book there’s a notation, "Early-day meetings were held during the dark of the moon because of the ...

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