Article from the San Marcos Daily Record - Monday, November 28, 2005 Couple decries loss of their 'piece of history' By BRAD ROLLINS - Staff Reporter Posted: Sunday, Oct 09, 2005 - 11:35:24 am CDT   Don Crawford with photo of his great-great grandfather, Henry Rutherford Crawford.     In an unpublished 1947 manuscript, Lois Rylander wrote of the tall shade trees that ”invited the weary traveler to stop and rest“ at a picturesque homesite on the Austin-San Antonio post road about five miles south of San Marcos. The homestead called Bonito - Spanish for ”pretty“ - was a stagecoach stop and post office from 1853 to 1865 on what is now Hunter Road just across the Comal County line. Long since passed from the family of pioneer and postmaster Henry Rutherford Crawford, the site was part of a ranch for decades before it was sold this year to Wimberley-based developer BlueGreen Southwest. Now the sprawling live oaks will frame the entrance for a high-end subdivision and a sales office will sit where the old post office once did. ”People ought to know that part of our history is disappearing. It's getting bulldozed and turned under and made into subdivisions,“ said Mary Jo Crawford of San Marcos, whose husband is Henry Rutherford Crawford's great-great grandson. ”It's about to be gone and once it is, it will be gone forever.“   According to ”An Encyclopedia of Texas Post Offices,“ Bonito was established in June 1853 and operated through the Civil War until being shut down in 1866 at the onset of Reconstruction. Family histories, including the Rylander manuscript, say Crawford moved to Texas in 1837 and had made his way to Central Texas by 1850 when he bought Bonito, perched on the edge of the Balcones Escarpment. ”The house and pastures were on the west side of the field directly across the road from the house. The road seemed to be the dividing line between the rocky hills back of the house and the black fertile prairie which stretched for miles in front of Bonito,“ wrote Rylander. Don and Mary Jo Crawford said they tried to buy the land before but the owner was unwilling to sell. Then this year while passing by, they saw a real estate sign and called the number. Again, they were told the owners were unwilling to sell Bonito along with several acres. The realtor told Don Crawford he would contact him when it sold so he could contact the new owners. He said he never received that call. They don't know exactly how much of the old house is still intact after a 1950s renovation that included addition of a rock facade. But, still, ”it's important to us. It's our history,“ Mary Jo Crawford said. They say they were shocked to drive by Thursday and see bulldozers toppling outbuildings. Bearing a photo album of artifacts - including Confederate stamps postmarked at Bonito - they talked to a bulldozer operator who stopped work and sent word to higher-ups. The word came back down: The Crawfords would have first shot at buying the lot that contained the old homesite when the trailer used for a sales office is removed. But the house wasn't worth saving and it would go, the Crawfords said they were told. ”So now we're just desperate,“ Mary Jo Crawford said. ”My husband thinks we shouldn't say anything because we'll make them mad and they won't sell us anything. But I think people need to know that this is happening and there's nothing we can do about it.“ A representative at the company's office said that Vice President Jack Dean was on vacation and couldn't be reached for a week. Other company officials referred questions to Dean. Connie Krause, the Comal County Historical Commission chair, said state law doesn't protect historical sites except cemeteries. ”The only thing you can save that you don't own is a cemetery,“ Krause said. ”I know what they're going through. It's one of those things where everybody thinks they'll be something else to fight to save later. Sooner or later we're going to run out of things worth saving.“ Copyright © 2005, San Marcos Daily Record All rights reserved.