(Read Part 1 of our series here.)
Meet Logan Vandeveer, the man who built the original section of the Bluebonnet House as the headquarters of his cattle ranch in 1853. (Read Part 1 of our Bluebonnet House series here.) It’s the part in the center which was made of darker sandstone unlike the two other additions that were later constructed of limestone. In this, and upcoming articles about Logan, you will see verifiable as well as circumstantial evidence that support the contention that he did build it, and what the trail he took from Kentucky to Burnet meant to the citizens of Central Texas. His life was cut way too short, but you may be surprised when you see how much he accomplished and what he contributed to Burnet in only 6 years that he lived there.
The most pivotal event of Logan’s life occurred just after 3:30 on the afternoon Of April 21, 1836, at Harrisburg. Just south of modem day Houston. The destiny of the Republic of Texas was about to be decided as General Sam Houston’s army of 900 brave pioneers were prepared to advance out of the surrounding woods and surprise General Santa Anna’s 1,500-man army camped out on the banks of the San Jacinto River enjoying their afternoon siestas. This was just 6 weeks after they killed all 183 brave defenders at the fall of the Alamo and just four weeks after the Goliad Massacre, where 303 captured Texan prisoners were lined up and shot or knifed to death. Completely catching the enemy off guard, the Battle of San Jacinto lasted only 18 minutes with a stunning victory for Houston’s troops, and 630 of the Mexican army killed, 208 wounded, and 720 taken prisoner. Only 9 Texans were killed and 30 wounded. As the battle proceeded, shouts of “Remember the Alamo” and “Remember Goliad” rang out many times.
One of the seriously wounded Texans, who happened to be in the first battalion when the attack began, as most of the wounded were, was 21-year-old Private Logan Vandeveer. He was born in Kentucky in 1815, moved to Texas in 1833, and enlisted in Capt. Jesse Billingsley’s company in Mina (now Bastrop) only two months prior to the battle in 1836.
