Palo Alto College

San Antonio, Texas

SMALL TOWN HISTORY: Poteet, TX

Berenice Espinoza	Fall 2000
History 1302	Hines

Click on map to see larger view.
Strawberry Capital ORIGINS: Poteet was originally a part of Mexico but in 1834 the Mexican government deeded several thousand acres of land to Joaquin de la Garza. Poteet began to populate and develop after Texas won its independence.

"FOUNDING FATHERS": Francis Marion Poteet brought his family to the Poteet/Pleasanton area after they left the California Gold Fields in 1860. Francis M. Poteet operated the post office out of his blacksmith shop in the 1886. The town was named after him because he was a pioneer, explorer, army scout, post rider, storekeeper, miller, farmer and rancher.
Mr. Henry T. Mumme was also a founder. He settled in the area in 1892. Henry T. Mumme contributed enormously to the town's growth. He found the artesian wells in 1904; this made the land more attractive to farmers. Mr. Mumme also donated 400 acres of land were the town site was built. Mumme was one of the first one to grow strawberries in the area.

Strawberry Wine Labels ECONOMY: Poteet started as a farming community. Cotton was the main crop to been planted, until 1910, when artesian wells were drilled by Henry T. Mumme. Farmers started to grow strawberries on irrigated land in 1910. What was of great help to Poteet's economy and to the town's growth was the Artesian Belt Railroad in 1910. In 1911, Mumme established the Poteet Coal and Sand Company Mine. The mining process was expensive, so it lasted around two-years. The town continued to be a center of commerce for area farmers, whose major source of income was the irrigation farming of peanuts, onions, watermelons, and strawberries. Oil reserves were found near Poteet, during the 1940's, it increased the population and the economy also. Today Poteet's economy is mainly the strawberry production and the Poteet's strawberry wineries.

HISTORICALLY SIGNIFICANT STORIES: One significant story is that the Strawberry Festival was organized by the Poteet Rotary Club as an effort to provide returning World War II veterans a reason to return to the farms.

EVENTS: Poteet is well known for the Strawberry Festival. The first festival was held April 9, 1948, in downtown Poteet. It included: the coronation of king and queen, a parade, music, horse races, carnival attraction, commercial exhibits, boy's bicycle races, a bubble gum contest, and veteran classes, among others.

INTERVIEWS: Ladell Applegate Wiggins (video tape) and Lorraine Ledesma
Berenice: "Lorraine , do you believe Poteet is the right name for the town, according to its history?"
Lorraine: "Yes I think so. Poteet was named after Francis Marion Poteet. He was the first one to settle here and the first to operate a post office. He also did a lot of things to help Poteet.
Berenice: "Poteet, Texas is well known for its strawberries. Otto Aigner was the first one to farm strawberries, then why don't change the town's name to Aigner, Texas if Aigner was the first one who started the strawberry production?"
Lorraine: "No, Mr. Poteet was the first one to settle here and he help the community."

FUTURE PROSPECTS: Poteet produces 40 percent of all Texas' strawberries. The Poteet Strawberry Festival is recognized as the largest agricultural fete in Texas. It pours $5-$6 millions into the South Texas economy. Poteet is still a very small, rural agricultural community, which isn't growing much.

WEBSITES:

Handbook of Texas: Poteet, Texas http://tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/pp/hgp11.html
General information about Poteet, Texas

Stawberry Festival
Texas' best Strawbery Fest! Every Spring.

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY:

ACGSL and James, H. Downing "Genealogy… Life in the Past Line" 1999. Atascosa Country Genealogical Society Library Aigner-Mumme Memorial Building Poteet Texas. America on Line. 31 Oct. 2000.
Here you can learn about Poteet's history and also about this library. You can learn that Poteet residents are interested about whom their ancestors were and they go to this institution to research.

Douglas McEven, "The Legend of Francis Mariot Poteet and the Mountain Meadows Massacre". Texas: Plesanton, 1996.
This book was written by a Francis M. Poteet's descendent. He tells about Poteet coming with his family from California to settle in the town now called Poteet.

Frankling, Sammie. "First Annual Strawberry Festival opens in Poteet Tonight". The Pleasanton Express April 1948 B.
This old newspaper article includes a program of the events that were held on the first Strawberry Festival. That was very informative; we can see what events that were held back then are still practiced today at the festival.

Frankling, Sammie. "H. T. Mumme was the founder of the City of Poteet in 1910". Pleasanton Express. 12 April 1961.
This article argues that Henry T. Mumme should be recognized as the founder of Poteet. It was useful to do my project because in certain way I feel that Mumme was the one that did most for the town's prosperity. I use the question in an interview to see what people believe was the real founder. If the town was name after it's founder, shouldn't Poteet be Mumme instead?

Frankling, Sammie. "History and Grow of Poteet Told" The Pleasanton Express 8 April 1948 B
This article was useful because I learned how the town got started. Some information that I already knew, but I use it to check if the other sources were reliable.

Ladell Applegate, interview, 9 Nov. 2000 This lady taught me a lot about the town's history. She also gave a tour at the genealogical library; she explained what she knows about the town. They have important artifacts of great historical value there.

Lorraine Ledesma, interview, 9 Nov. 2000 I ask her if she believed Poteet was a good name for the town. She told me that Poteet was named after Francis Mariot Poteet. He was the founder and the first on to operate a post office. That he had done something for the town's prosperity.

"POTEET, TX." The Handbook of Texas Online. accessed Wed Nov 8 23:30:42 US/Central 2000.
This was a very complete source. It almost had all the information that I was looking for. It was easy to understand and follow. This source was the one I first read and it gave me a general idea of Poteet's history.

Walsworth Publishing Company, Atascosa County History USA, Taylor Publishing Company, 1984.
In this source I learned something very important. Poteet has a layer of coal that underlines the rich soil on which strawberries are grown; this same layer of coal once supplied a majority of San Antonio Fuel.

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