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Uvalde, Texas
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Uvalde History
On February 8, 1850,
Uvalde County was formed
by a legislative act
from Bexar County but
failed to secure a
permanent county because
of an insufficient
number of settlers,
until the year 1852.
These first settlers to
arrive at the canyon
later changed the name
to Uvalde. Of equal
importance to the early
history of the county
was the development of
the farming and ranching
settlements at
Waresville by Capt.
William Ware in the
upper Sabinal Canyon and
Patterson Settlement by
George W. Patterson,
John Leakey, and A. B.
Dillard on the Sabinal
River; these settlements
coincided with Reading
Black's development of
the Leona River at
Encina. A second attempt
by Black to organize the
territory resulted in a
petition to form a
county encompassing the
area of the present
Kinney, Maverick, and
Uvalde counties.
Reading W. Black's
initiatives helped
to truly establish
Uvalde, in August of
1866, following the
Civil War. Mr. Black
hired a surveyor
from Germany and
started work on May
2, 1855, which is
said to be the birth
date of Uvalde. The
town was divided
into 464 lots, a
schoolhouse square,
a cemetery (located
on the corner of
Leona and North
Park), a park (Uvalde
Athletic field), a
garden, presently
the City park, and
four town plazas.
Mr. Black names the
plazas: the market,
now known as the
bandstand; the
fountain, now the
post office; the
townhall (City
Hall); and the
courthouse.
Uvalde County
UVALDE COUNTY, named
for Spaniard Juan de
Ugalde,qv is in
Southwest Texas
midway between San
Antonio and the
International
Amistad Reservoir on
the United States-Mexico
border. Uvalde
County covers 1,588
square miles and the
Nueces, Leona,
Sabinal, Dry Frio,
and Frio rivers flow
through Uvalde
County. At the
intersection of U.S.
highways 83 and 90
is Uvalde, the
county seat. Other
major towns are
Knippa, Sabinal, and
Utopia; minor towns
are Cline, Montell,
Concan, and Reagan
Wells.
Artifacts discovered
in various parts of
the county indicate
that people hunted
and gathered in the
future Uvalde County
as long ago as 7000
B.C. After the
establishment of San
Antonio in 1718, the
Uvalde County region
was consistently
traversed by Spanish
soldiers, commercial
packtrains, buffalo
hunters, cattlemen,
and mineral
prospectors.
In 1762 Nuestra
Señora de la
Candelaria Mission
was established near
the site of present
Montell and near the
site of a
prehistoric Indian
village at
Candelaria Springs.
The mission was
abandoned in 1767
due to Comanche
attacks. On January
9, 1790, Juan de
Ugalde,qv governor
of Coahuila and
commandant of the
Provincias
Internas,qv led 600
men to a decisive
victory over the
Apaches near the
site of modern
Utopia at a place
known then as Arroyo
de la Soledad. In
honor of his victory,
the canyon area was
thereafter called
Cañon de Ugalde.
The years
immediately
following the Civil
War were marked by
conflicts between
Confederates and
Unionists returning
to live in Uvalde
County. Black's
attempt to form a
strong local Union
League may have led
to his assassination
in October 1867.
At the end of the
Civil War, Uvalde
County remained the
last frontier
district court site
for a region that
included the
unorganized
territories of
Zavala, Kinney,
Edwards and Maverick
counties. The region
was home to
smugglers, cattle
and horse rustlers,
and numerous other
desperadoes. One of
the county's most
colorful and
powerful characters
during this period
of lawlessness was
its most notorious
cattle rustler, J.
King Fisher.
Uvalde County
gradually emerged.
During the first
decade of the
twentieth century
the county's
population grew from
4,617 in 1900 to an
estimated 11,233 in
1910.
One-fourth of all
mohair produced in
the United States in
1903 originated in
Uvalde County.
Between 1900 and
1903 irrigated farm
acres increased from
365 to 2,500. By
1903 farms were
successfully growing
peaches, plums, figs,
pears, onions,
tomatoes, pumpkins,
melons, potatoes,
cabbage, and beans.
Onions shipped from
Uvalde County
reached a high of
100,000 pounds in
1903.
Limestone asphalt
mined at Blewett in
southwest Uvalde
County was shipped
to road-paving
contractors
throughout Texas
from 1898 to 1901.
In 1910 county
farmers harvested
23,135 pounds of
pecans.
In 1921, the
construction of the
Uvalde and Northern
Railway to Camp Wood
and of the Asphalt
Beltway Railway in
1921, and the
expansion of the
asphalt mines in far
southwestern Uvalde
County at Blewett
and Dabney, drew in
Mexican Americans,
whom by 1930, made
up 40 percent of
Uvalde County's
population.
The Great Depression
caused many Mexicans
living in Uvalde
County and Texas to
return to the
relatively calm
political
environment and
improving economic
conditions in Mexico.
Only large-scale
ranches survived the
depression.
Two notable
government projects
were completed in
the county in the
later part of the
1930s: the National
Fish Hatchery, three
miles west of Uvalde
(1937), and Garner
State Park, which
was built with
Civilian
Conservation Corps
labor and opened in
1941. The National
Fish Hatchery,
produced a million
fish annually in the
early 1970s-fish
produced were
channel catfish,
largemouth bass, and
sunfish. Ranchers
began leasing their
land to hunters.
Garner Army Air
Field opened in
1941. Due to a boom
in economy, the land
was turned over.
From 1947 to present
day, this land is
the home of
Southwest Texas
Junior College.
Ranchmen in Uvalde
County were
primarily breeding
Hereford cattle by
1940.
In 1948 the
dominant
agribusinesses
in Uvalde County
were livestock
and the wool and
mohair industry;
that year an
estimated 48,448
acres of
farmland was
under
cultivation.
A 2,500-acre pecan
plantation,
irrigated by one of
the largest artesian
wellsqv in South
Texas, had 30,000
trees in Uvalde
County in 1940.
During the 1950s a
devastating drought
claimed large
numbers of cattle
and live oak trees,
as water wells went
dry; the production
of corn, wheat,
cotton, and oats
declined
dramatically, and
the number of farms
dropped from 690 in
1950 to 525 in 1959.
The raising of
pecans remained a
major industry in
the county in the
1990s.
By 1960 Mexican
Americans made up
one half of Uvalde
County's 16,015
population. Efforts
to gain civil rights
for Hispanics in
Uvalde County began
with the
establishment of the
Tomas Valle Post of
the American Legion.
As late as November
23, 1973, a federal
administrative judge
ruled that Uvalde
County schools were
still segregated.
County churches
maintained
segregated places of
worship until an
integrated Catholic
church emerged in
Uvalde in 1965.
In 1973 Uvalde
County had one of
the largest wool and
mohair merchandising
warehouses in Texas.
By 1975 the county
rated third among
counties in Texas in
Angora goat and
mohair production.
By the 1970s the
Hereford breed had
decreased in
popularity, and
ranchers had begun
to crossbreed with
Brahman cattle,qv a
breed able to graze
farther from water
in hot weather.
Since 1973 Uvalde
County livestock
raisers have
introduced a number
of European breeds
to produce cattle
more adaptable to
feedlots, which have
become more common.
The population grew
from 17,348 in 1970
to 22,441 in 1980.
A substantial
increase in improved
acreage, from 54,187
acres in 1970 to
123,576 acres in
1980, resulted in
increased production
of corn, wheat, and
cotton.
Approximately $45
million from farming
industry in Uvalde
was recorded in
1974.
County voters
supported Democratic
presidential
candidates in all
elections except in
the years 1928 and
1952. After 1952,
however, voters
consistently
supported Republican
candidates, with one
exception in 1964.
The Texas
Agricultural
Extension Service
recorded an
estimated market
value of $11,062,000
for cotton,
$6,183,000 for corn,
and $1,100,000 for
wheat in 1989 for
Uvalde County. A variety
of vegetables with
estimated cash
receipts of
$7,982,000 were
grown in the county
that year-spinach,
onions, cantaloupes,
carrots, cabbage,
and cucumbers.
Ranchers in 1989
received an
estimated $2,222,700
in hunting leases on
740,000 acres of
land. These profits
helped them survive
losses in other
areas of their
operation.
County ranchers fed
an estimated 43,500
beef cattle, 17,000
pigs, 85,000 goats,
and 38,000 sheep in
1989.
The allocation of
the county's
underground water
was the dominant
concern for farmers,
ranchers, merchants,
and politicians
throughout the
1980s. Below-average
rainfall in the late
1980s accelerated
efforts to maintain
local control of
underground water
supplies. In January
1989 Uvalde County
joined Medina County
by withdrawing from
the Edwards
Underground Water
District.
Uvalde has taken on
the reputation of
the "County of 1,000
Springs," and it is
no mystery that the
waterways that run
through Uvalde
County are crystal
clear, giving way to
the town slogan of "
Clearly, Texas."
A rare winter freeze
in 1989, when
temperatures dipped
to 6° F, so
extensively damaged
the county's winter
vegetable crop that
Uvalde county judge
Bill Mitchell
declared the county
a disaster area.
In 1990 Uvalde
County had a
population of
23,340, with 60
percent identified
as Hispanic.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Lizardo S. Berrios,
Socialization in a
Mexican-American
Community-A Study in
Civilization
Perspective (Ph.D.
dissertation, New
School for Social
Research, 1979).
Lois Miller
Carmichael, The
History of Uvalde
County (M.A. thesis,
Southwest Texas
State Teachers
College, 1944).
Florence Fenley,
Oldtimers: Frontier
Days in the Uvalde
Section of Southwest
Texas (Uvalde,
Texas: Hornby,
1939). A Proud
Heritage: A History
of Uvalde County (Uvalde,
Texas: El Progreso
Club, 1975). Uvalde
Leader-News, January
14, 1990. Vertical
images, El Progreso
Memorial Library,
Uvalde, Texas. WPA
Texas Historical
Records Survey,
Inventory of the
County Archives of
Texas (MS, Barker
Texas History Center,
University of Texas
at Austin).
Derksen Portable Buildings is one of our
happy customers in
Uvalde, Texas.
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