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The Knickerbocker
Ranch
Photo courtesy Hiram Joel Jacques |
History in
a Pecan Shell
The
town was once second only to San
Angelo in size and political influence in the county after Ben
Ficklin was washed away in the great flood of the Concho River.
The name comes from two of the town's early settlers who were related
to Washington Irving, the American writer who was at the peak of his
popularity at that time.
Diedrich Knickerbocker was the fictitious narrator of Irving's History
of New York.
In 1875 the three Baze brothers donated land for a church, school,
and cemetery on the northwest side of Dove Creek. They installed an
irrigation ditch to grow hay, and melons to sell to the Fort
Concho soldiers. |
Joseph Tweedy
and wife
Photos circa 1881, courtesy Hiram Joel Jacques |
In
1877 Joseph Tweedy, J. Barlow Reynolds and the Grinnell Brothers drove
their herds of sheep from their camp near Brackettville.
They established the Knickerbocker ranch / store on the SE side of
Dove Creek.
A post office was opened in 1881. In the 1880s the Tweedy Mercantile
Company dealt in oats, wheat, and corn. Second only to the crops was
sheep production.
After a collapse in wool prices, the original settlers left, leaving
only J.Tweedy. He platted a townsite on his land, and set up his own
irrigation company for farms along Dove Creek.
Stephen Dexter Arthur planted cotton as an experiment in 1887 and
produced Knickerbocker's first bale. The ruins of his water-driven
gin can be seen near the bridge at Dove Creek. Arthur built a Methodist
church on land donated by Joseph and Elizabeth Tweedy. In 1889 the
town relocated to a site with better water.
The town had twenty-five residents in 1884, fifty in 1890 but by the
late 1890s the population had swollen to 250.
During its boom times, Knickerbocker seemed to have two of everything.
The town had two gins, two saloons, two blacksmiths, two hotels and
two stores. It also had an undertaker - just one.
Kinckerbocker also had an early sanitarium since doctors all across
the country were sending people to dryer climates. Later, nearby Carlsbad
became a huge facility for tuberculosis patients.
Knickerbocker's adobe store / post office, built in 1896 remained
standing until 1936. Knickerbocker got its first school, in 1889 and
a school for Mexican children six years later.
A lawless element hung out near Knickerbocker and two members of this
group staged a train robbery near Sanderson,
Texas (see The
Last Full-sized Train Robbery in Texas).
A brick school built in 1926, served until the school consolidations
of the 1950s. In 1956 Knickerbocker merged with Christoval. |
 |
The E.M. Grinnell
House
Photo courtesy Hiram Joel Jacques |
Knickerbocker
residents
Photo courtesy Fort Concho Museum |
Pre-1912 group
photo courtesy Ralph D. Ellis
Click on photo for large image |
Knickerbocker
Historical Marker
On FM 2335 in front of Knickerbocker Community Church
Photo courtesy Barclay
Gibson, December 2006 |
Historical Marker
Knickerbocker
Attracted by irrigable
land and the available water supply in Dove Creek, farmers, sheepmen,
and cattlemen came to this area in the 1870s. First to arrive were
the Baze brothers, who dug an irrigation ditch in 1875 to grow melons
and hay for nearby Fort
Concho. Others soon followed, including cattleman Joseph Schmidt,
cotton farmer S. D. Arthur, and the Ryan, Martinez, Jaques, Villareal,
Soto, Byler, Atkins, Beck, Duncan, Foster, and Etheridge families.
In 1877 New Yorkers Morgan and Lawrence Grinnell, Joseph Tweedy, and
J. B. Reynolds drove their sheep into the valley. They named their
ranch headquarters after Washington Irving's character Diedrich Knickerbocker.
The Knickerbocker Post Office was established in 1881. In 1889 the
town was moved to a location just south of the original site in order
to tap a new water supply. By 1890 the settlement had stores, hotels,
saloons, blacksmith shops, two churches, and two schools.
As was typical of many West
Texas rural areas, Knickerbocker declined with the advent of the
automobile and improved road systems. Farmers left to find work in
San
Angelo (18 mi. NE). The settlers of Knickerbocker, however, left
a rich heritage. Many of their descendants still live in the area.
(1983) |
Knickerbocker,
Texas Landmarks
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Knickerbocker
Post Office and Community Center
TX 76939
Photo courtesy Barclay
Gibson, December 2006 |
Immaculate Conception
Catholic Church
Photo courtesy Barclay
Gibson, December 2006 |
Knickerbocker
Community Church
Photo courtesy Drew Sykes, April 2007 |
Mr.
Hiram Joel Jacques' personal look at the people who settled this region
in the 1880s:
"My late father's ancestors have deep roots in Ben
Ficklin and Knickerbocker history and Tankersley.
My great-great-grandfather, Tomas Jaques de Salazar (1800-1880), moved
to Ben
Ficklin around 1871-72 with his family.
He was the oldest man in Fort
Stockton in 1870 at the age of 70 years. He crossed over to Fort
Stockton, Texas from Chihuahua by wagon in 1870. In 1872, Tomas
and two of his four sons, Trinidad and Jesus Jose, signed the Petition
of 1872 to form Tom
Green County, which included about 13 of today's counties. Tomas
died around 1880, two years before the great flood of 1882.
Around 1886, Two sons then moved toward El
Paso and two settled in Knickerbocker. My great-grandfather,
Honesimo Jaques, worked for Joseph Tweedy and built his rock house
in Knickerbocker.
My grandfather, Selso, worked for R. F. Tankersley as a foreman on
his cattle ranch. Selso married the niece of R. F. Tankersley's second
wife, Conchita Maldonado. My late father, Francisco (Frank) Jacques,
was born on the Tankersley
ranch in 1917."
- Hiram Joel Jacques, San Jose, CA ,August 14, 2003
Our special thanks to Hiram Jacques of San Jose, California and the
Fort Concho Museum for providing the photos illustrating the Knickerbocker,
Tankersley, Ben
Ficklin and Fort
Stockton pages. |
Knickerbocker,
Texas Forum
|
| "[Above]
is the authorization for my mother to carry and deliver mail on the
Star Route (between Tankersley
and Knickerbocker Texas.) Though no date is shown, it was likely sometime
shortly before 1979--the year my mother's mother (the previous postal
carrier) passed away. My grandmother McCleery took me and/or my sister
with her when she ran the Star Route. - Ralph D. Ellis, July 17, 2014
|
Subject:
Knickerbocker
My mother, my grandma and my great grandmother was raised in Knickerbocker.
My mother told me lots of stories back from her childhood that were
quite amazing even though they are no longer with you. I see that
the town has came quite a ways from being a Ghost Town. Why not
call it Little House on the prairies instead of Ghost Town. - Sophia,
May 22, 2022
Subject:
Knickerbocker: Mail and... baseball?
When I and my sister were young, in the fifties and early sixties,
our grandparents lived next to Tankersly school, and our grandmother
delivered the mail along the route between Tankersley
(where Mr. Boggs was Postmaster) and Knickerbocker (where Mrs. Byrd
was Postmistress). We kids would accompany her on occasion, and
it was high adventure!
Attached is a photo,
taken pre-1912, in which my grandmother's sister-in-law appears.
I'm not sure what the group represents, but I see two of the young
men in what appear to be baseball uniforms. A large letter K appears
on the uniforms (and I think on the caps). My guess is that the
K stands for Knickerbocker.
Can you tell me the address of someone who might be able to confirm
what would make an interesting side-light to Knickerbocker's history?
Any help appreciated. My email address is: r.ellis.ix@gmail.com
- Very sincerely, Ralph D. Ellis, January 30, 2014
Subject:
Ghost town: Tankersley VS Knickerbocker
Your, tethered to the ranch, ghost town-busting reporter here reporting
for service again. Visited your wonderful site again to check on
updates. Saw updated photos of the Knickerbockers churches, thanks.
But I noticed you still have us in the “Ghost Town” category. I
will try one more time to convince you that we are not dead! This
time by comparison. Check out your listing for Tankersley.
It’s only 6 miles north of Knickerbocker. You have Tankersley in
the regular city category. Tankersley does not exist anymore! It
has not been even a village for fifty years. There nothing there
that has any civic relationship to the lonely one or two ranchers
near by. [A] ranch office is there but that’s it. There’s a State
owned sign that says “Tankersley” but I or anyone else would be
hard pressed to point out where the town is.
Tankersley is a Ghost town not Knickerbocker!
Again, Knickerbocker has a community center, a post office, two
churches, a Volunteer Fire Department, warm homes with warm bodies
inside them on either side of the highway and down our side streets.
Kids are playing in yards, people gather to visit and exchange the
latest juicy gossip at the post office. We have yearly church festivals
and secular picnics. I think we could even produce a town mayor
when he’s sober, our spiritual deacon and a village idiot or two.
So, I am on my knees, I beg you, I implore you to put Knickerbocker
in the regular town category and out of the ghost town category.
- Sincerely, Drew Sykes, Sec/Tres, Knickerbocker Community Center,
Knickerbocker Ranch, August 06, 2007
We may have
ghosts - but they are all in the cemetery.
Subject: Knickerbocker Texas labeled a "Ghost Town"
You are wrong in claiming the village of Knickerbocker a “Ghost
Town”. Yes we have lost much of our business and population over
the years but we are still a community that takes great pride in
our little village. About 50 people live in Knickerbocker. We have
a Community Center that is used quite frequently by the local citizens
and it also has the Post office in it. It is beautifully landscaped
in front with native plants. Soon we will have the start of a pavilion
in the back of the center. We have two churches and two cemeteries.
Come to think about it we may have Ghosts in Knickerbocker but they
are only in the cemeteries! So could you please change the title
you have given Knickerbocker. We are not a Ghost Town. If you need
any other information or pictures I would be happy to provide. Thank
you, Drew Sykes, Sec/Tres. Knickerbocker Community Center/ Knickerbocker
Ranch, October 18, 2006
Texas Escapes town #700
September, 2003 Feature town
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| Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories,
landmarks and recent or vintage photos, please contact
us. |
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