Meet Logan Vandeveer, Builder of Burnet: The Bluebonnet House Part 2

By Texas Hill Country | February 13, 2020

 

Where did Logan Vandeveer get so much money to buy so much land? As it happened, land that he had obtained in Waterloo (now Austin) was located exactly where the Republic of Texas decided to build the first state capitol building. Logan and 4 other surrounding property owners were paid by the government for the land that they owned, a total of 521,000; which would be the equivalent of 5460,000 in today’s money. Yes, you would have to admit that for the time, as luck and fate would have it, Logan became a very wealthy man. So, what did he do with all of his money you might wonder? The answer might surprise you.

 

The town of Burnet (known as Hamilton or Hamilton’s Valley at the time) was established in 1849 when the U.S. government built Fort Croghan on the banks of Hamilton Creek just on the western outskirt of the town to help protect the pioneer settlers from attacks by hostile Indians in the area. His family was settled in Burnet by 1850, since they appear on the census taken that year, however, his wife Lucinda died a short time afterword. Both of his two sons had already died at very young ages while they still lived in Bastrop. He also had a fifth daughter born just before Lucinda died, but she only lived one year. So, left were Logan and his four remaining daughters, Eliza (11), Mary (9), Sarah (4), and Emily (2), all named after his sisters.

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