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History
in a Pecan Shell
Nicolaus Zink, the man who surveyed New
Braunfels for Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels is credited with founding the
town. The name comes from Sister Creek. The tiny population grew with the
arrival of "Forty-Eighters" - dissidents (many of them intellectuals) leaving
Europe after a failed revolution.
Frederick Law Olmsted (noted landscape
architect and creator of NYC's Central Park) visited Sisterdale on his cross-country
trip. Sisterdale was granted a post office in 1851.
The community was
open on its anti-slavery and pro-Union policies - it's relative isolation probably
protecting it from Confederate reprisals. When the war was over, Sisterdale lived
in blissful tranquility - its population comprised of an estimated 150 people
(1884).
Sisterdale had a store, gin and a factory for making Cypress shingles
- an important industry at that time.
In 1914 there were only 25 residents
which doubled by the mid-20s. In 1968 the estimate was sixty-three - the same
number that appears on the 2004 state map.
Boerne
Hotels | Kerrville
Hotels
| Fredericksburg
Hotels
A
Visit to Sisterdale, Texas: |
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Schoolhouse
hand water pump
Photo courtesy Barclay
Gibson, December 2007 |
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The schoolhouse in 2002. TE Photo | |
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