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Texas Ghost
Town
CHERRY
SPRING, TEXASGillespie County,
Hill Country
Highway 87
1/2 mile S of the Mason County Line
16 miles NW of Fredericksburg
6 miles S of Loyal Valley
Population 75 (estimate since 1970)
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Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church
Photo courtesy Justin Parson, April 2006 |
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History in
a Pecan Shell
Cherry
Spring was a stop along the San Antonio-El Paso road and had a moderate
success taking care of the needs of travelers. The community dates
from the late 1840s / early 1850s when German settlers left the safety
of Fredericksburg to strike
out on their own. Dietrich Rode and William Kothe are credited with
being town founders. A Lutheran church was built there in 1849. |
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The
Old Cherry Spring School
Photo courtesy Justin Parson, April 2006 |
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Old Cherry Spring School and marker
Photo courtesy Justin Parson, April 2006 |
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post office was opened by 1858, and within two years there were over
200 people - three quarters of them German immigrants who farmed and/or
kept sheep. Famed German colonist and Indian negotiator John O. Meusebach
was buried at Cherry Spring in 1897. |
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The
Marschall-Meusebach Cemetery
Photo courtesy Justin Parson, April 2006 |
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"A
cool little cemetery surrounded by a stone wall" - Justin Parson,
April 2006 |
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a railroad and far from large cities, Cherry Spring never grew past
it's initial growth spurt - and by 1912 there still weren't enough
people to warrant a post office. In 1933 the population was reportedly
40 - but in the 1960s it fell to less than 10. It increased to 75
about the time Fredericksburg
was being "discovered" in the late 1960s and the same figure is given
in 2004. |
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TXDoT maps of Gillespie County show no fewer than twelve cemeteries
within eight miles of Cherry Springs. |
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