MONOGRAPHS OF KINNEY COUNTY’S ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE: Windus Home

This bi-weekly feature examines the enduring unique architecture and historic associations to be found here in Kinney County by spotlighting individual buildings and providing brief histories, complimented by period photographs. Our intent is to explore the past, inspire the present, and build the future by showcasing the remarkable associations and legacies of structures which have stood the test of time and continue to contribute so much to the exceptional heritage of Kinney County. Our next subject is the “Windus Home,” on the south corner of East El Paso Street and South Fort Street, The first house in Brackettville to have running water, almost 130 years ago. This now vacant building is a simple common single story house built of native limestone. However, it is not the architecture which is of note but rather the impressive historical associations of its original owner. For nearly a century this building was home to the Windus family, whose patriarch was Medal of Honor recipient Claron Augustus “Gus” Windus.

Born in Janesville, Wisconsin in 1850, with the coming of the Civil War he was too young to join his older brothers in the fighting. Until, in 1864, at age fourteen he managed to enlist as drummer boy in the 5th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. Military life must have appealed to him for two years after his Civil War service he lied about his age and enlisted in the 6th U.S. Cavalry, claiming his profession to be that of a cigar maker.

The enlisting officer recorded him as having blue eyes, brown hair, a fair complexion and standing just five foot three inches tall. At age sixteen he became the bugler for Company “L” of the regiment. The unit landed at Galveston in 1866 and for the next five years Windus served faithfully in Texas and Kansas. A fateful day in July 1870 found him on the Wichita River with a detachment of the 6th Cavalry fighting for his life against Kiowa Indians. For conspicuous gallantry that day Windus and two others were awarded Medals of Honor, a distinction for which he was held in very high regard for the rest of his life.

One year later after having served out his enlistment in October 1871, Windus was discharged at Fort Hays KS. He and fellow soldier Albert Coffin (namesake of Brackettville’s Coffin Street) headed back to Texas and found the rough and tumble frontier town of Brackett to be to their liking. Windus found employment as a deputy sheriff and Coffin went into private business. At some point Windus met eighteen year old Miss Agnes Margaret “Aggie” Ballantyne and began a courtship. Then came another fateful day when Windus again made history. In the Seminole camp on Las Moras Creek just after midnight and into New Year’s Day 1877, while attempting to arrest former Seminole Scout Adam Paine on a murder warrant, Windus shot and killed Paine, who was also a Medal of Honor recipient. It is unlikely that any incident in Windus' varied career affected him as did this incident on Las Moras Creek.

Whether or not he knew then, or later, that Adam Paine was a Medal of Honor man undoubtedly would not have changed his actions. This is the only known instance in American history where one Medal of Honor man killed another. Just over a month later Windus married Agnes and set about establishing a homestead on the corner of El Paso and Fort Streets, caddy corner from the stage stop. He remained as a Deputy Sheriff in Kinney County for nearly a year following the incident at Las Moras Creek, before being elected the Kinney County Tax Assessor in 1878, and eventually becoming one of the largest land owners in the county.

The Windus’s first child, a daughter, was born on Valentine’s Day 1878 and named Agnes Margaret after her mother. It is not known if her birth took place in the Windus home or in the hospital on Fort Clark. Over the next nine years two more daughters were born. Lucy Amy in 1883 and Cora Edith in 1887. On July 12, 1897 Windus received written permission for the U.S. Secretary of War to lay pipe from Fort Clark to his home, becoming the very first home in Brackett to have running water. For a time Gus’s older brother George owned the property next-door to the Windus home.

The family fortunes ebbed and flowed over the years into the late 1890s. At one time Gus worked for his old Army buddy Albert Coffin as the agent for the Coffin Stage Line. With the election of William McKinley to the presidency in 1897, Windus, a lifelong Republican, petitioned the administration for appointment as U.S. Marshall for Western Texas. Although he gathered a significant number of endorsements from many influential people including John L. Bullis, he managed only a position as deputy U.S. Marshall. Windus responded to the call for volunteers when war with Spain came in 1898. He was granted at age forty- eight a commission as captain of Company “I,” 9th U.S. Volunteer Infantry, a black regiment. He deployed to Cuba but saw no combat, only managing to contract yellow fever and a return home for discharge. The new century brought regular employment as a U.S. Customs Inspector with various postings along the Texas border.

Over time Windus received formal invitations to join the United Spanish War Veterans, the Army and Navy Legion of Valor, and in 1921 a personal invitation from the Secretary of War ...”to come to Washington, as a guest of the Nation, to participate in the ceremonies pertaining to the burial of an unknown American who was a member of the American Expeditionary Forces and who lost his life during the World War.” He respectfully declined.

Daughter Agnes died in 1919 at age forty-one perhaps a victim of the influenza epidemic of that year. Gus and Addie were still living in house on El Paso Street when he was hospitalized at Fort Sam Houston in late September of 1927. After a week he peacefully passed away at age 77. Addie followed him thirteen years later in 1940, she was 81. Lucy Amy Windus Welch died in 1947. Cora Edith never married and continued to live in home which was held as Addie’s estate. The property owned by the Windus family for 95 years was sold in 1972. Cora was later institutionalized for a mental disorder and lived until 1975, she was 87 years old.

Gus, Addie and their three girls are all buried in Brackettville’s Masonic Cemetery. It is a fervent hope that their home could somehow someday be formally recognized as a Kinney County heritage site. Special thanks to Diane Dooley of Uvalde, Gus Windus’s great-granddaughter and keeper of his legacy, for the photographs accompanying this article.



Monographs of Kinney County’s Architectural Heritage is written by Bill Haenn, FCHC Senior Historian. Fort Clark Heritage Council is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, established in 2023, to advocate for the preservation and protection of the architecture and other historic resources in the Fort Clark National Register Historic District for the benefit  of the visiting public and future generations, providing for the advancement and strengthening of heritage tourism initiatives by growing recognition of and visitation to the Fort Clark Historic District and being committed to endorsing and promulgating the rich history of Fort Clark by expanding upon related educational and research efforts. Find this article and more online at  KinneyCountyPost.com