history – Page 52 – Texas History Notebook

Llano’s Lost Silver Mine Stories

The legends of the Lost Silver Mines of the Hill Country date back to the mid 1700s, alternately referred to as the San Saba Silver Mine, the Llano Silver Mine, the Los Almagres Mine and the Spanish Silver Mine. The stories appear to possibly involve several locations of buried treasure in the same general area. The following is intended to be a high level look at the mystery.

Allie Victoria Tennant

Allie Victoria Tennant was born around 1890 according to the 1900 Federal census. Her father was Thomas Richard Tennant and her mother was the former Allie Victoria (or Virginia) Brown. The family was living in St. Louis, Missouri in 1900 and her father was the general manager of a coal company. Allie was the only daughter among five siblings. By the time the 1910 Federal census was taken, the family was living in Dallas and her age was listed as 11. This probably gave rise to a different year of birth being used for her, 1898, though her death certificate used June 28, 1898 as her date of birth. Her father’s profession by then was listed as being an accountant for a manufacturing company. By 1920 her father had passed away the year before, and she was living with her mother and three of her brothers in Dallas.

James Brown, Actor

James E. Brown was born in Desdemona, Texas to Floyd Estle Brown and Cordie Mae Bowen Brown on March 22, 1920. In 1920, the Brown family was living in Desdemona during Eastland County’s early oil boom. They had previously lived in Waco but had followed the oil business to Eastland County for a short time before returning to Waco when James was just three months old. James was the second of four siblings and though he was the only sibling not to be born there, he considered Waco to be his home town. He graduated from Waco High School in 1936 where he helped the school tennis team win a championship that year. Brown attended Schreiner Institute in Kerrville for one year before enrolling at Baylor University on a tennis scholarship. Along the way, he played football briefly until injuries (broken eardrum and cracked kneecap) led him to concentrate on tennis. Brown’s family remained in Waco and for a number of years lived in Brook Oaks and North Waco, in the general vicinity of Cameron Park. At the time of his father F. E. Brown’s death, the elder Brown was said to have lived in Waco for fifty years. He and Cordie Mae had divorced at one point, but they are both buried at Oakwood Cemetery.

Temple Lea Houston

Temple Lea Houston was born August 12, 1860 to Sam and Margaret Lea Houston. He was the youngest son of the couple and was the first child born in the Governor’s Mansion in what is now downtown Austin. Temple did not have the benefit of living with his parents for many years since Sam died in 1863 and Margaret died in 1867. He was raised by an older sister, Nancy Elizabeth “Nannie” Houston Morrow in Georgetown. Though she was only 13 years older than Temple, Nannie and her husband took in a number of the younger Houston children. Houston left home at the age of 13, working on a cattle drive, clerking on a riverboat and taking other jobs until with the help of a former associate of Sam Houston, he was hired as a page in the United States Senate. After a few years, Temple returned to Texas and enrolled at Texas A&M before transferring to Baylor at Independence, Texas, where his family had formerly lived, graduating in 1880. He apprenticed at law, passed the Texas Bar and within a year or two was practicing law in Brazoria.

John James Audubon Meets Sam Houston

The famous naturalist John Audubon came to Texas in 1837. Portions of his journal were excerpted in the Galveston Daily News on November 27, 1875, citing the San Marcos Free Press.