Palo Alto College

San Antonio, Texas

Lindsey Park

Kingsbury, Texas

While taking a history course at Palo Alto College, my history teacher required us to do a project. This project had to be about a small town that we could research, but at the same time we had to tie it into our course work that we learned about earlier in the semester. The town that came to my mind was Kingsbury, Texas. This was a perfect small town that I could do a lot of research on and at the same time I could tie it into my knowledge gained earlier in the semester. A lesson we studied had to deal with the changing face of rural America. This was a lesson that I could relate the small town of Kingsbury, too. This lesson dealt with the small towns all across America disappearing. It also talks about family farmers, and the small towns that support them, are dying out. With them go the schools, churches, businesses, and in some cases, the histories of millions of people. Through talking to the townspeople and a very knowledgeable man by the name of Leslie Baker, I learned a lot of valuable information. My research started from how the town originated to how it has turned out to be now days.

In 1874 Col. William S. Kingsbury from England was making a survey for Southern Pacific Railway from Houston to San Antonio - as he reached here during his survey, he found this to be the highest point between San Antonio and Houston. It is 711 feet above sea level. He described it to be the land of “Milk and Honey”.

Kingsbury was interested financially in the Southern Pacific lines and this seemed to have been his private little adventure. Kingsbury was fired when the Southern Pacific Railway found out about his private adventure. Land for the town site was given by the Pierce Estate and was named Kingsbury for Col. Kingsbury. The deed was filed for the “plot” of Kingsbury in 1875. In 1876 the town site was laid out. The map was surveyed and streets were named. A city map of Kingsbury was made in 1876. The town plot shows two streets south of Depot and three north of Depot. The streets south were Geronimo and Caldwell. North of the Depot were Guadalupe, Summit, and San Marcos. The cross streets were Center, Market, West, Post Office, McNutt, East, and Crockett.

The railroad was built from 1873 to 1877. In 1873 the railroad reached Kingsbury. About two years before it reached San Antonio, a Y track was built for the engineer to turn around to go back to Houston. The Y track was still in use in 1903. Kingsbury was called the supply dump for the railroad. They would bring supplies out of Houston and dump them off in Kingsbury where the track ended, so that they could continue on building the track to San Antonio.

This area was the first to be settled in Guadalupe County and had settlers before the Texas Revolution. Among them were George Allen in 1831, Samuel Highsmith in 1831, Robert Smith and Stephen Smith in 1831. James Wales Jones was granted a bounty certificate for 1280 acres of land in 1839 on the San Marcos River. He was one of Stephen F. Austin’s colonists, coming to Texas in 1821. The grant was for services in the army and serving the early Texas Rangers spy unit

An immigration company was found by Sam Neel to aid many settlers from England. One of the early settlers who came to Kingsbury from England was Captain Joshua Herbert, his wife and daughter in 1883. He remained about a year and due to ill health returned to England. The daughter had married and remained in Kingsbury. She married Bud Neuman. She longed for England and her family so persuaded her younger sisters to come for a year’s visit. The same fate befell the younger daughter of Captain Herbert. She too married John Schmidt and remained the rest of her life in Kingsbury. Two children are still living in the country. They are Mrs. Violet Wiley of Seguin and Frank (Doc) Schmidt of Kingsbury who is County Clerk of Guadalupe County.

The Flynois Hotel was built north of the railroad for the railroad workers. This old two story building was used as a general merchandise store by Bill Powers which burned in December, 1911. Much of the town burned in 1911 and was rebuilt across town. What is left of the old buildings is what you see today. Now there is a bar, a wood works shop, and a café.

A hotel was built south of the Depot by Hamtons and in 1889 was sold to Daniel Wolfshohl. It was used as a hotel by several renters; some were Mulchay, Flowers, Allbright, Cosh, Wolfshohls. It was used until 1924. Then a new hotel was built on the north side of the railroad and called Lynch Hotel and run by Mrs. Carrie Jones.

There was also a large railroad depot consisting of Negro waiting room, a white waiting room, a large office, and a warehouse, a large 500 bale cotton platform, stock pens holding 300 head of cattle.

Cream, butter, eggs, watermelon, cattle, hogs, and chickens were shipped out to San Antonio from here and ice and beer were shipped in.

A very large gravel pit was opened by the railroad north of Kingsbury. It covered one hundred acres. About two miles was laid through the pit. Convict labor was used for a number of years. Later mules and scrapers were used. A barn built from the old crossties from the first track still stands on the William Smith place and still shows old spikes.

One of the original English settlers is buried in the Kingsbury cemetery. His headstone reads “ ‘Punch’ Charles Othen, born near London, England, 1849, died 1916, Kingsbury, Texas.” He was known by everyone as “Punch” and was liked so well that John Schmidt had a marker set up for him. The Osborn family from England are also buried in the Kingsbury cemetery.

On August 13, 1876, the first Post Office was opened. Mark W. Isard was the first postmaster. The original post office was closed down a few years ago for the obvious reasons. It was economically cheaper to open a new one. There weren’t enough mail boxes to offer and it cost too much to try to heat it during the winter and cool it during the summer. There was a new post office built a few years ago across the road. The old post office is used as a restaurant today called “Our Place”. The First Post Office in Kingsbury

The first Methodist Church was organized in 1876 by pastor A. F. Cox. The first church building was a log cabin with a dirt floor and stood on Caldwell Street. The present Methodist Church is located in the first old school building. They have of course done some fixing up and made it nicer inside, but the outside stills looks exactly the same.

The Lutheran Church was organized on April 24, 1887 by Pastor Franz Weisskopff. The members of the church built the church building. Among them are the Wofshols, Donsback, Busse, Hargenrath, Frieke and many more. The original building is still in use.

The Negro Baptist Church was also one of the oldest churches built in Kingsbury and held their association every year with very big crowds. It is still used as a church today. There are very many African Americans that attend there today.

The first school became a reality in 1887. Hathonial Denton was the first teacher. The second school building was a red brick building built in 1918. The third school building was erected in 1939-1940, for a number of years a twelfth grade school. In 1962 it became a part of Seguin Independent School District with all children being bused to Seguin. The old school was closed down for economical reasons. By the end, the school only went through sixth grade. So that meant all the kids ended up finishing school in Seguin. The third school house today is still standing and in half – way decent condition. An elderly man lives in the school house and keeps it up somewhat. The First School in Kingsbury

In 1906 the population was 325, the businesses: were: J. Allen, Saloon; Allen and Wiley, Grocery Store; Anderson and Schmidt, Cotton Gin; A. T. Coates, Cotton Gin; A. A. Bading, Saloon; Donahooe and Duke, Blacksmith; Martin Flynn & Co, Grocery Store; A. D. Halm & Bros, Grocery Store; J. A. Lynch, Grocery Store; F. V. Naurer, Hardware & Lumber; W. R. Powers, Grocery Store; Mrs. Daniel Wolfshohl, Hotel.

One business building is still standing of the original old buildings. The old yellow building on Main Street was Bud’s Saloon. It was later used for coffins and hardware by Albert Wolfshohl. Was Buds Saloon in Kingsbury

The First National Bank was constructed of red brick in 1912. It was closed in the late 1920s. The owner of the bank was spending everyone’s money on dry oil wells. When the bank finally went broke the owner claimed a robbery. Everyone knew this wasn’t true and a trial happened. The owner was found guilty and put in prison. The building burned in 1929 along with a complete block of town, Drug Store, Lynch Store Meat Market and Garage. This was the second burning of the town. The town burned down twice and was rebuilt, once in 1911 and once again in 1929. The First National Bank in Kingsbury

In 1976 the old part of town only had the Post Office, Ray’s Café, Wright’s Antique Store, County Ware House, and Kingsbury Wood Works. The other side of the track had Hurt garage, Pat Baker Company and Sons, Schmidts Grocery. It also has a fire station, Justice of the Peace, and the Blue Bird Inn. To this day the town of Kingsbury still has four churches. The old part of the town in Kingsbury

Over the years the town of Kingsbury has lost a lot compared to how it was in the early 1900s. Part of that is having the town of Seguin so close and the convenience of just going there for everything. One gentleman said to me “You used to know everybody in the town of Kingsbury, but it has changed so much over the years that I hardly know anybody”. Although the town had changed in the way of people, the town itself has not changed so much. It is still a small country town where nothing bad ever happens. Kingsbury is like the towns we talked about in our history class. Yes it is a wonderful town but that is all it is. It will never grow again and might even slowly get smaller over time until it is one of rural Americas disappearing small towns.

Texas Handbook: Kingsbury, Texas

Interview with Johnny Harborth, from Kingsbury

Interview with Leslie Baker, from Kingsbury

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY:
1. Leslie Baker – a man that was born and raised in Kingsbury. He was a very knowledgeable man in how the town started and what has came and gone over the years. This was a man that was willing to help me learn all that I could to make my project better. Not only did he help me, but he loaned me pictures of Kingsbury as far back as 1887 close to when the town started.
2. Johnny Harborth – a man that owns a country works store here in Kingsbury. He also is a gentleman that has lived in Kingsbury all his life. He only left here for two years and that was to go into the army, but as soon as he was done he came back to Kingsbury and has never left since.
3. Alleen J. Sramek – a woman who wrote a paper on the history of Kingsbury. This woman is very knowledgeable about all of the dates when everything occurred in Kingsbury from the origination of the town.
4. Albert Wolfschohl’s Diary – This was a copy of Albert’s diary that was dated from 1904 to 1922. This was very interesting to read because it had something written in it every few days. Albert Wolfschohl was the first postmaster in Kingsbury.
5. Wilburn Kluth – a gentleman that didn’t live in Kingsbury literally, but in a sense he did. He went to school in the third school that Kingsbury had. He is a gentleman that has many stories about Kingsbury and going to school there.
6. Edna – everyone knows Edna by the woman who owns the Country Café. She is a woman who helped me to find my other sources for this project. She is a lady that knows almost all the locals in the whole town.

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