Kenney's Fort

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KENNEY'S FORT. Kenney's Fort was at the mouth of Dyer Branch on the south bank of Brushy Creek, sixteen miles north of Austin in Williamson County. It was built in 1839 by San Jacinto veteran Thomas Kenney to protect the outermost settlement on the Colorado River frontier. The small fort was ordinarily defended by five or six armed farmers.

It consisted of a single blockhouse and three or four log cabins surrounded by an eight-foot stockade. In 1839–40 government soldiers were stationed at nearby Camp Caldwell, but generally the settlers had to see to their own defense. In August 1840 Joseph Weeks and other settlers successfully defended the fort against Comanche Indians.

A retaliatory expedition was planned against the Indians by Felix Huston, major general of the militia, and the fort was renamed Fort Dunnington for Lt. William M. Dunnington, who was killed in the Council House Fight at San Antonio. By November, however, these plans were abandoned, and Fort Dunnington again became Kenney's Fort.

In 1841 the Texan Santa Fe expedition assembled at Camp Cazneau, which was located next to the fort. During the Archives War, the state records were surrendered near Kenney's Fort. The only known remnant of the fort is a part of the flagpole. In 1936 the Texas Centennial Commission placed a historical marker a half mile north of the site.