The VanPelts of Uvalde County

Capt. T. M. G. (Malcolm) Van Pelt was one of the early settlers to the Frio Canyon, a long wide valley with the Frio River running through it's center. He was born in Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, in July of 1831. His great-grandfather was a soldier in the war of the revolution.

He came to Texas in 1853 and settled first at Gonzales, then moved to Prairie Lea in Caldwell County in 1854. He bought cattle there and drove them to the Hondo River in 1855. In 1860 he moved and settled in Frio Canyon, Uvalde County. He had a fine ranch and farm fronting the river. At this time, the area of the Frio Canyon was regularly raided by Indian war parties. Capt. Van Pelt was an experienced Indian fighter but was also said to have been always running over with fun and practical jokes.

T. M. G. VANPELT BORN JULY 15, 1831 DIED DEC. 10, 1910

C. E. VANPELT (California Elizabeth Elam VanPelt) BORN JAN. 1, 1836 DIED NOV. 21, 1914

Joseph M. Van Pelt, the son of Malcolm Van Pelt and California Elizabeth Elam, was born at Prairie Lea, Caldwell County, Texas, on the last day of May, 1857. That was a noted year to old Texans, and called by some of them the "starving year." It was a year of great drought, when no crops were made, and many families went without bread for weeks at a time.

When Joe was about 3 years old the Van Pelts moved to Frio Canyon. One of the first things Joe became familiar with as he grew up was moccasin tracks and the almost constant alarm of Indians in the settlement. Indian tracks were often seen in the field where they had stolen potatoes and roasting ears. He went on many dangerous scouting trips after Indians when quite young.

J. M. VANPELT MAY 31, 1857 AUG. 22, 1912 At Rest

This post is in memory of my childhood friend, Norman VanPelt, descendant of these Texas pioneers, who is now buried among them in the Concan Cemetery.

Source - Early Settlers and Indian fighters of Southwest Texas by Andrew Jackson Sowell, Pub. by Ben C. Jones & Company, 1900

Concan Cemetery - Uvalde County, Texas

The Concan Cemetery is located about a mile northeast of the Frio River outside of the small community of Concan in Uvalde County. It is a fairly small cemetery but one of my childhood friends and several generations of his ancestors are buried there so we recently made a stop there as we were returning from a visit to Lost Maples Natural Area and Garner State Park.

AMANDA
JONES

DIED

APRIL 8, 1915

AGE 78 YRS


At Rest

Amanda Jones is recorded in the 1910 census of Uvalde County as the wife of Montgomery W. Jones. She was born in 1837 in Alabama and had married Montgomery Jones in 1866.

WILLIAM H.
ROBINSON

Pvt. Texas Frontier in
Indian War

September 9, 1939

From information on the markers at his gravesite, William H. Robinson was a Texas Ranger during the indian wars on the Texas frontier. Census records list William H. Robinson as born in Texas in 1856, the son of Henry M. and Eva Robinson of South Carolina. It appears that he and his wife, Alice E. Smith, did not have children.