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Joseph
Tivy is a name closely associated with Kerr
and Gillespie
Counties. The name is especially linked to Kerrville,
a town with a particular fondness for naming institutions after
prominent local families.
Joseph Albert Tivy was one of those daring frontier types: fearless,
hyperactive, adventurous, always in the middle of everything. The
name Tivy is archaic English meaning "with great haste or speed,"
and it fit Joseph Tivy to a tee.
He was born in Toronto, Canada and raised in Niagara County, New
York, but the lure of the American West was irresistible. In 1838
Tivy arrived in Texas, a full-grown man, at the age of 19.
He originally settled in Burleson
County. He was a rancher, a surveyor, and a Texas Ranger. He
first saw the Hill
Country while on the trail of marauding Comanches. He once served
on a survey crew with Bigfoot
Wallace along the Llano River.
When Joseph Tivy first peered over the ridge into the Guadalupe
River Valley, he saw a pristine wilderness, without a mark of man
on it. He was so charmed by the hills, the sparking mint green water,
and the stately cypress trees, he bought a section and a half of
land along the river in 1842.
In 1847 and 1848 he bought several thousand acres along the Pedernales
River in Gillespie
County where the community of Tivydale now stands.
Then in 1849 he heard about the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill,
and the next day he was off for California. He did little prospecting,
but he ran a hotel and served in the California State Legislature.
In California as in Texas, Tivy's name had a way of sticking to
things. There is a Tivy Valley and a Tivy Mountain in Tulare County
in central California.
But nine years later, after a stop in New Mexico, he was back in
Texas. He settled, briefly, in Karnes County. He served in the Civil
War, earning the rank of captain.
In 1872, Captain Tivy and two spinster sisters took up his land
on the Guadalupe. The property included a half mile of river frontage
extending back 2 miles to the northeast. That part of the property
was called "the Flat," where the town of Kerrville
now stands.
He surveyed the village of Kerrville,
and when the town was incorporated in 1889, Tivy served as the first
mayor. He gave 16 ½ acres for a high school that still bears his
name. He also donated 23 town lots with the proceeds to support
the school. In all he gave over 100 acres to support public education.
When the railroad came to Kerrville
in 1891 he built the Tivy Hotel. The old wooden building still stands
at 305 Tivy Street.
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Tivy Hotel in
Kerrville
May 2016 photo courtesy Michael
Barr |
| When the captain
and his sisters came to the Guadalupe, they made a pledge never to
marry, but the Captain broke the promise and married Ella Losee, the
widow of his best friend. Although the marriage was one of convenience,
it angered the sisters. They both moved back to New York, but Susan,
the youngest, returned. |
The Tivy burial
plot on Tivy Mountain
May 2016 photo courtesy Michael
Barr |
| Ella Tivy's last
request was to be buried on top of Tivy Mountain - a rough cedar and
brush covered hill that overlooks the town of Kerrville
with a spectacular view of the Guadalupe. Tivy honored his wife's
dying wish, but not without some difficulties. It took workers four
days to clear a path to the top. The burial vault had to be blasted
out of solid rock. Two mules had to lean into the harness to draw
the wagon carrying Mrs. Tivy's casket up the mountain. |
When Mrs. Tivy's
cat died, sources say that Susan Tivy paid a young Chester Nimitz,
then living with his family in Kerrville,
one dollar to bury the cat in the family plot on Tivy Mountain. The
cat has its own headstone.
Captain Tivy died on July 5, 1892. He is buried beside his wife and
sister, and the cat, on top of Tivy Mountain. |
View of the
Tivy gravesite overlooking the Guadalupe Valley
May 2016 photo courtesy Michael
Barr |
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