Land Heritage Institute

08/30/2026

08/30/2026

Last nights moonlight ride included our Moonlight Pit Stop through the barn. We handed out moonpies, moon cookies, horse snacks and more. We had 27 horse riders.

08/28/2026

Getting the barn all cleaned up for the Trail Masters Moonlight Ride!

08/20/2026

Land Heritage Institute is back to operating on second and third Saturdays each month. With a couple of exceptions in October. Due to a Equestrian event. October will be on second and fourth Saturdays. Check back each month for more information on LHI.

08/17/2026

We had to pause our history series last week as we were busy picking up these two adorable baby goats 🐐

08/10/2026

Part Three: The Presnall Homestead

In Part Two, we followed Harrison Presnall to the banks of the Medina River, where he and his brother-in-law, Stephen Applewhite, acquired their land in 1854. Harrison took the eastern portion—roughly 665 acres—and began establishing the place that would become the Presnall Homestead.

More than 170 years later, that home is still standing.

And as I write this chapter, I am sitting inside it.

📷 Image: Close-up of the original sandstone wall

The wall beside me is built of locally available yellow sandstone, laid in irregular courses and joined with mud mortar. These aren't decorative remnants placed here to represent the past. They are part of the original structure—the same walls that surrounded the Presnall family in the nineteenth century.

Sitting here while researching their lives gives the history a very different feeling. The names we've been finding in old deeds, census records, family histories, and court documents belonged to people who once walked through these rooms and looked out across this same landscape.

🏠 Building a Home on the Medina

The earliest portion of the Presnall Homestead dates to about 1854, shortly after Harrison and his family established themselves on the property.

The original stone house was remarkably simple. Its core consisted of two main rooms divided by a massive central stone chimney, with fireplaces serving the rooms on either side. Beneath them was an unusual two-room basement or cellar, including another fireplace. Nearby stood a separate stone kitchen building.

These buildings were constructed for practicality. Thick masonry walls helped moderate South Texas temperatures, while local stone and earth provided materials that could be obtained directly from the surrounding landscape.

But the house was only one part of a much larger working landscape.

🚜 A Farm Built Through Enslaved Labor

📷 Image 2: List of 11 slaves within the Presnall family.

The early Presnall property was initially associated with cotton agriculture, and Harrison brought enslaved African Americans with his family from Louisiana to Texas.

Their forced labor was part of establishing and operating the Presnall property during its earliest years. The surviving house therefore represents more than the story of one pioneer family—it also belongs to the history of the enslaved people who lived and labored on this land, even though the historical record has preserved far less about their individual lives.

That is a part of the homestead's story we don't want to overlook.

Following emancipation and the end of the Civil War, the agricultural operation changed. Harrison increasingly concentrated on livestock, raising cattle, horses, and sheep on the surrounding acreage.

The land that began as a nineteenth-century farm and plantation gradually became the ranching landscape that would characterize this property for generations.

🏠 A House That Kept Changing

The structure visitors see today did not appear all at once.

Like many long-lived homes, the Presnall Homestead changed as families changed. Rooms were added, altered, repaired, and adapted by generations of people who lived here.

Yet at its heart, the original stone structure survived.

And that's what makes standing inside it today so extraordinary.

The rough sandstone wall in this photograph has witnessed more than a century and a half of Texas history—slavery and emancipation, the Civil War and Reconstruction, generations of ranching families, periods of change and neglect, and ultimately the preservation of this land as part of the Land Heritage Institute.

Today these rooms have another life.

There is something incredibly special about sitting beside these old stone walls while researching the people who built and lived within them. Sometimes history feels distant—names, dates and faded documents on a screen.

Here, it doesn't.

Here, the history is still standing around you.

Sources
National Register of Historic Places, Presnall–Watson House nomination.
Twentieth Century History of Southwest Texas, Vol. II (1907), Presnall family biography.
Bexar County Deed Records, Vol. L2, pp. 231–232.
Mary Presnall Wise, The Presnall Family.
Original photograph of the Presnall Homestead stone wall, 2026.

❓ Question for our readers

If these 170-year-old walls could talk, what part of their story would you most want them to tell?

08/03/2026

Some footage from last night’s marathon runners 🏃 🏃‍♀️ 🏃‍♂️

07/31/2026

The Presnall–Watson Homestead
Part Two: Harrison Presnall and the Beginning of the Homestead

📷 Featured Photo: Harrison and Susan Presnall's gravesite, Confederate Cemetery, San Antonio, Texas.

Last week, my daughters and I made a special trip to San Antonio's Confederate Cemetery to visit the graves of Harrison and Susan Presnall. After spending weeks reading old deeds, probate records, and family histories, it was meaningful to stand where they now rest. History suddenly felt much more personal. Harrison was no longer simply a name written in nineteenth-century documents—he was a husband, a father, and a man whose decisions would shape the history of the land we now know as the Presnall–Watson Homestead.

Harrison Presnall was born on February 13, 1813, in Alabama, the son of Absolom Presnall and Nancy Wright. Like many frontier families of his generation, the Presnalls continued moving west as new opportunities opened, living in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana before eventually settling in Texas.

Before coming to Texas, Harrison married Susan Applewhite, and together they began raising a family. They would eventually have six children. While living in Louisiana, Harrison established himself as a cotton planter. Historical records also document that he enslaved African Americans, whose forced labor supported the family's agricultural operation. This was a tragic but undeniable part of the history of the Presnall family and of many prosperous farms throughout the American South during that period.

By the early 1850s, Harrison saw new opportunities in Texas. In 1852, he and his brother-in-law, Stephen Applewhite, entered into an agreement to purchase land along the south bank of the Medina River southwest of San Antonio. Two years later, on February 4, 1854, the transaction became official.

📜 The Deed That Began the Homestead

📷 Image 2-3

The original deed records the purchase of approximately 1,420 acres from John T. Story, acting as attorney for Andrew Cunningham.

One passage reads:

"...paid by Harrison Presnall and Stephen Applewhite... a certain piece or tract of land situated on the south bank of the Medina River..."

Reading those words today, it's remarkable to realize that this document marks the beginning of a homestead that would endure for more than 170 years.

When Harrison and Susan arrived on the Medina River, they did not come alone. Historical accounts indicate they brought enslaved men, women, and children with them to establish the farm. Their labor was fundamental to clearing the land, cultivating crops, and building the early agricultural operation. Although their names have largely been lost to history, acknowledging their lives and labor is an important part of telling the complete story of the Presnall–Watson Homestead.

Soon after the purchase, Harrison and Stephen divided the property between themselves. Harrison established his family's home on the eastern portion of the tract, while Stephen settled to the west. Although the families recognized the division from the beginning, it was not formally recorded until years later.

In its earliest years, the homestead functioned primarily as a farm. Cotton was an important crop, reflecting the agricultural economy Harrison had known in Louisiana. Like many Texas landowners of the era, he gradually diversified his operation as conditions changed.

During the Civil War, Harrison served in Texas frontier service before returning home to continue developing the property. Following the abolition of slavery, the homestead adapted to a changing economy. Tax records from the 1850s and 1860s document a steadily growing livestock operation that included horses, cattle, and sheep. Over time, the Presnall farm evolved into one of the area's successful ranching operations, helping establish the family's reputation along the Medina River.

When Harrison Presnall died on February 9, 1883, he left behind much more than land. He left a homestead that would continue through new owners, survive generations of change, and eventually become part of what is now the Land Heritage Institute.

Sources
Bexar County Deed Records, Vol. L2, pp. 231–232.
Twentieth Century History of Southwest Texas, Vol. II (1907).
Mary Presnall Wise, The Presnall Family.
National Register of Historic Places Nomination, Presnall–Watson House.
Photograph of Harrison and Susan Presnall's gravesite by the author.
Coming Next...

➡️Part Three: Building the Presnall Homestead

The land had been purchased, and a new life had begun. Next, we'll step inside the original sandstone home Harrison Presnall built along the Medina River and explore how one frontier family created a place that has stood the test of time.

07/24/2026

The Presnall–Watson Homestead
Part One: Who Was Absolom Presnall?

Before there was a Presnall homestead in Texas, there was a man named Absolom Presnall.

The story of the Presnall family did not begin in Texas, but on the expanding American frontier of the late eighteenth century. Although many details of Absolom's life have been lost to time, surviving family histories, military records, land records, and probate documents allow us to trace the life of the man whose descendants would eventually establish one of the oldest surviving homesteads in San Antonio.

According to Mary Presnall Wise's The Presnall Family and the 1907 Twentieth Century History of Southwest Texas, Absolom was born around 1760 and was of French descent. He was the son of James Presnall and Sarah Harvey and one of several siblings, including Elijah and Harvey Presnall. The family first lived in North Carolina, later became established in South Carolina, and eventually migrated westward into Clarke County, Alabama as new lands opened for settlement.

📷 Image 1-3: Page from The Presnall Family identifying James Presnall's children, including Absolom, Elijah, and Harvey.

In 1789, Absolom married Nancy Wright, daughter of William Wright and Elizabeth Furr. Following Nancy's death in 1816, he married Sarah Leavell. Together, family histories report that Absolom fathered 24 children, an extraordinary family even by the standards of the early American frontier. Among those children was Harrison Presnall, who would later carry the family's story west into Texas.

The 1907 biography describes Absolom as a planter in South Carolina, reflecting a livelihood built on agriculture. Like many prosperous planters of his era, the Presnall family also participated in the institution of slavery—a difficult but essential part of their history to acknowledge honestly.

When the United States entered the War of 1812, Absolom served as a private in the 1st Mississippi Territorial Volunteers, joining other frontier settlers in defending the Mississippi Territory.

📷 Image 4: War of 1812 service record for Absolom Presnall.

By 1825, federal land records document Absolom purchasing public land in Clarke County, Alabama, confirming his presence on Alabama's developing frontier.

📷 Image 5: 1825 federal land patent issued to Absolom Presnall.

One of the most revealing glimpses into the Presnall family comes from the settlement of Harvey Presnall's estate in 1834. Probate records show Absolom's brother Elijah Presnall serving as administrator while the court divided Harvey's estate among his heirs. As part of that distribution, Absolom received Rose and her child, two enslaved individuals identified by name in the court record, and later received $436.00 during the estate's final settlement. These records provide valuable insight into both the family's close relationships and their participation in slavery, an institution that shaped the lives of countless families throughout the American South.

📷 Images 6-7:
1834 probate record showing "Rose and her child" awarded to Absolom Presnall.
Final settlement showing payment of $436.00 to Absolom Presnall.

According to Mary Presnall Wise, Absolom's family later continued westward, and their last known settlement was in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, where he died in 1840. Although the location of his grave remains unknown, his family's journey across the American frontier was far from over.

One of Absolom's sons, Harrison Presnall, would continue west into the Republic of Texas, where he established the homestead that still stands today on the grounds of the Land Heritage Institute. His journey marks the beginning of the Presnall family's Texas story—and the next chapter in the history of the Presnall–Watson Homestead.

➡️ Next week: Harrison Presnall

Sources
Wise, Mary Presnall. The Presnall Family.
Twentieth Century History of Southwest Texas. Vol. II. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company, 1907, p. 457.
War of 1812 Service Record, Absolom Presnall, 1st Mississippi Territorial Volunteers.
U.S. General Land Office, Federal Land Patent to Absolom Presnall, Clarke County, Alabama (1825).
Clarke County, Alabama, Probate Records, Estate of Harvey Presnall (1834).

07/17/2026

📜 Introducing a New Weekly Series: The Story of the Presnall-Watson Homestead

Every historic place has a story.

Long before this property became the Land Heritage Institute, it was home to generations of families who built lives along the banks of the Medina River. Their stories are woven into the land, the buildings, and the landscape that visitors still enjoy today.

Beginning this week, we're excited to launch a new weekly series exploring the rich history of the Presnall-Watson Homestead. Together, we'll trace the family's journey across the American South, discover how they came to Texas, and follow the evolution of this remarkable homestead through triumphs, hardships, and generations of change.

Along the way, we'll share historic photographs, paintings, maps, family stories, and documents—some familiar, others newly uncovered through ongoing historical research.

Whether you're a history enthusiast, a longtime supporter of Land Heritage Institute, or simply curious about the people who came before us, we hope you'll join us each week as we uncover another chapter in the story of this extraordinary place.

Welcome to the journey.

➡️ Next week: Who Was Absalom Presnall?