Von Ormy Texas is located on Interstate Highway 35 and the Medina River, 13 miles southwest of downtown San Antonio in southwestern Bexar County.

"FOUNDING FATHERS": Enoch Jones was born in 1802 in Wooster, Ohio. He was an engineer and immigrated to Texas sometime before 1837. Jones took partnership with John William Smith and they acquired an extensive amount of land. He later moved to St. Louis and started a wholesale business; and Smith continued to purchase large amounts of land in Texas. In 1845, Smith died and Jones returned to Texas in February of the following year. He settled in San Antonio where he opened a mercantile store, sold land, horses and was an founder and director of the San Antonio and Mexican Gulf Railway. After the Texas Revolution in 1835, Jones bought a large amount of scrip, which the United States redeemed in full when Texas became a state in 1845. He had acquired about 175,000 acres along the Medina River, where he built his mansion. The mansion is still intact to this date. Jones died on August 7, 1863. Count Adolph Von Ormy bought the former house of Jones which, included about a 2,300-acre tract of land. The Count, along with his Countess and some 20 uniformed servants, planned to establish a court at the mansion. However, the Countess returned to Europe after only a years residence, and mysteriously the Count disappeared a year after that. The community was originally known as Medina Crossing and was settled sometime after the Civil War. A post office was founded in 1879 and was named Manns Crossing after a family who operated a ferry. The name was changed in 1886 in honor of Count Adolph Von Ormy.

ECONOMY: In 1914 the town had two grocers, a general store, a cotton gin, and a population of about 350. Today Von Ormy is mostly an agricultural town that consists of mainly small farms and ranches. There are a few businesses in the area such as bookkeeping and secretarial services, One Step Beyond, the Freeport Business Center and a few trucking stations.

SCHOOLS: The children in Von Ormy attend schools in either the Southwest Independent School District or in the Somerset Independent School District. There is no local government.

LANDMARKS: There are several landmarks in the surrounding Von Ormy area, such as the one at the Ruiz-Herrera Cemetery, located off Somerset Road and Quesenbury Lane, close to the Medina River and another at Garza's Crossing. However, the only landmark in town is in front of the mansion that Enoch Jones built, located at 6887 Von Ormy Road.

CHURCH HISTORY:

The Catholic community in Von Ormy dates back to the time of the Alamo in 1836. Francisco Ruiz who was the Mayor of San Antonio and Blas Herrera, who warned the patriots at the Alamo of the coming of Santa Anna, were two important men that are recorded by the church as being buried at the Ruiz-Herrera cemetery. The location of the early church is unknown; however Bishop Odin does list a church at the ranch of Don Carlos de la Garza, and some believe that is the same church at Garza's Crossing that was called Church of the Holy Trinity. Research on this early church history is still in progress. Should the church be one in the same it is listed as being built in December of 1840. There are parish records that date back to July of 1866. In 1889 55 baptisms were recorded which shows an active Catholic community. It appeared that in 1898 the community began to deteriorate and no Bishops came to confirm. In 1916 Bishop Shaw came to confirm 127 people, unfortunately there was no Priest to minister to the people until 1935. Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Ruiz donated the land and several parishioners donated money and other essentials. The community of men from the parish helped with their manual labor of digging the foundation and carrying the stones to build the church. Finally in January of 1935, the doors to Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church opened to the community. The rebuilt church is located at 13466 IH 35 South.

INTERVIEW with Frederick Ernst:

Do you know why the town was founded?
There was a railroad spur here and I believe that's why it was founded. They used to have a depot there were they loaded the cotton bales on and all that kind of stuff.

What is the population?
We deliver to nearly 18,000 people, we cover a huge area but Von Ormy itself I would say is about 500 to 550 its hard cause the town is not incorporated and there really is not a boundary so you just say the town itself.

Do you know any historically significant stories?
He was supposed to have had 300 Negro slaves, this is Count Von Ormy he lived there for several years and he disappeared mysteriously and I don't know if it was on account of his wife or what or if he took his slaves with him or not but his son ended up somewhere in South America.

Do you know of any landmarks?
There's one on the other side its also a crossing on the Medina River they call it the Garza's Crossing its close to Somerset Road I understand that's where Santa Anna crossed going to the Alamo, that's what I've heard, back then the river ran real wide and they had to find a shallow water crossing, the river don't run that big anymore.

How does the town look economically speaking?
Well we've added three big truck stops two down here on 1604 and one up here on Fischer Road we've had the Texmart service station there and I believe it was built in '65 or'66 but as far as businesses no not to much we deliver to Freeport Business Center but I don't know if you could call that Von Ormy our delivery goes to 410 and we deliver to that business part of it. That was all corn fields till about three years ago they made that a business park and they have a computer firm and a cardboard box manufacturer and company which is Bates Container and they have a plant down there that manufactures parts for railroad cars.

Can you tell me anything about the mansion?
It has a full basement and its reported to have had the first flush toilet in Texas. Count Von Ormy had his slaves carry up water from the well they had a dug a well just below the bluff and they used to draw water and carry it up to the roof and put it in the cypress tank and they had copper pipes running down and there is a five ton rock in the second floor, that would make it about 22 feet above ground above the basement floor and we don't know how they got up a five ton rock that high that many years ago . The walls are all two feet thick solid rock that was blasted out of where the basement is and on the side of the hill. Supposedly they had some battles with Indians there also, it was kind of like a fort back then it didn't have what they call solariums on each side it was initially just square. The ceilings are about 12 feet high and in the basement about 10 feet. There are four bedrooms upstairs and they are 20 x 20. The living room is 20 x 60 and it has two fireplaces in it and I think there are fireplaces in every room. There was also a fireplace in the basement.

Do you know of any legends or myths?
One of the myths was that if you go over there on a night of a full moon you could here chains clanging up and down the stairs. They also had a tunnel I know this to be a fact that would lead from the basement of the house down to the river, now the river has changed course since then but below the hill the river used to run there but its moved over the years and the water has been redirected and when they were under siege from the Indians they could still go down and get water. It was a secret tunnel. My dad used to live there for over 35 years. Mr. Baker's estate sold it to Jay B. Warriner and he turned it into a historical site.

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Ramos, Mary G, Texas Almanac 2000-2001, Texas A&M University Press 1999.
This book helped with information regarding population, location, businesses, and post offices.

Pool, C. Williams. A Historical Atlas of Texas, Volume II
The Encino press, 1975
This book provided a picture of Bexar County.

Ernst, Frederick- Post Master at the Von Ormy post office personal interview Nov 11,2001.