Full Circle on Monument Hill


 As a member of the original “Old 300,” David Berry staked a land claim in 1832 that encompassed much of the Bluff area where Monument Hill is today. We don’t know if Berry built any structures on the land granted to him by Empresario Stephen Austin, but the tract eventually became the home of the Bluff community and prominent German immigrants like Heinrich Kreische.

In September 1842, seventy-year-old David Berry answered the call to help defend San Antonio against General Woll’s invasion. Accompanied by his son-in-law, Harvey Hall, Berry met up with Dawson’s group of volunteers somewhere between present-day O’Quinn and Black Jack Springs. Legend has it that when someone suggested Berry was too old to fight, he placed a mark 70 paces away and shot it through the center to prove himself. Both Berry and Hall were killed during the Dawson Massacre on September 18, 1842. Six years later, his remains were bought to their final resting place – the land that he had once owned.

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