The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 104, July 2000 - April, 2001 Page: 517
673 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Two Captivities of Adolph Korn
American settlement of Castell on the Llano River. There they built a
house and started ranching.4 This move to the Texas hill country proved
to be ill-advised. Since 1851 the white settlers in that remote area had
looked to nearby Fort Mason for some protection from Indian raids.
However, on February 13, 1861 (only a few months after the Korns had
arrived), the fort's commanding officer, Col. Robert E. Lee, abruptly left
the post for San Antonio and then Virginia. Soon the nation was preoc-
cupied with civil war, and Fort Mason, far from the center of that con-
flict, was left in disarray. The federal army abandoned the fort in March
1861 and did not reoccupy it until December 1866. It was closed in
1869.5
Not surprisingly, clashes between the Indians and the white settlers in-
tensified in that region during the 186os. One of the most talked-about
tragedies occurred on January 7, 1865, when the family of George W.
Todd, Mason's first county clerk, was attacked by Indians about four
miles south of the town of Mason. Todd's wife, Dizenia Peters Todd, was
mortally wounded, an unidentified black servant girl was killed, and the
Todds' daughter Alice was taken captive. Alice Todd was never recov-
ered, despite an extensive search conducted by her half-brother, James
Smith. She was presumed to have died of exposure. (Years later, Adolph
Korn thought he saw Alice Todd while he was with the Indians. If he was
correct, then she was still alive in the early 187os and may have become
completely assimilated.)6
Factors other than the disruptions at Fort Mason contributed to the
deteriorating relations between the white settlers and the Indians. One
was increasing encroachment. The German-Americans had originally es-
tablished compact, European-style villages surrounded by small farm
plots, but eventually they came to occupy larger and more widely dis-
persed tracts of land. They also started competing with the Indians for
wild game. When Hazel Oatman Bowman, a Llano writer, interviewed
Wilbert, Kernels of Korn, 17-18, 58. The village of Castell is actually located in Llano County,
near the Mason County line The Kornsjoined the Methodist Church in Castell in i86o. Ibid ,
19; DeVos (ed.), One Hundred Years, 5. The census of i86o indicates that the Louis Korn family
(misspelled "Corn") was still lihvming in San Antonio as of July 186o. United States Eighth Census
(186o), Bexar County, Texas (microfilm; Genealogy Collection, San Antonio Public Library).
Margaret Blerschwale, "Mason County, Texas, 1845-1870," Southwestern Hzstoncal Quarterly, 52
(Apr., 1949), 388-390; Margaret Bierschwale, A Hstory of Mason County, Texas Through 1964
(Mason, Tex.. Mason County Historical Commission, 1998), 89-93.Jerry Ponder, Fort Mason, Texas:
Tranmng Groundfor Generals (Mason, Tex.: Ponder Books, 1997), 102-l09, 136-156, 161-162.
a Dorman H. Winfrey and James M. Day (eds.), The Indian Papers of Texas and the Southwest,
z825-z9z6 (5 vols.; Austin: Pemberton Press, 1966), IV, 426; Stella Gipson Polk, Mason and
Mason County: A Hzstory (Austin: Pemberton Press, 1966), 30-31; Mason County News, June 26,
1941, p. 4; affidavit of Adolph Korn (n.d.; circa 1889-1890o), Indian claims file, office of the
Mason County Clerk, Mason, Texas. Adolph gave this affidavit to estabhsh the ownership claim of
Adolph A. Reichenau to certain horses taken by the Indians. It was probably drafted by his broth-
er-in-law Wilson Hey, the Mason County and District Clerk.2001
517
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 104, July 2000 - April, 2001, periodical, 2001; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101221/m1/595/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.