The George Elbel building
Palo Alto College
San Antonio, Texas
| Cody Schmidt
| Spring 2004
|
| History 1302
| Hines |
Kendalia, Texas "The city that never was"
ORIGINS:
It is still uncertain with why Kendalia is named the way it is. It is either named after George Wilkins Kendall or is it named after the county, which got its name from Kendall. Kendalia is located in the far north-east area of Kendall County. It has only two main roads that pass through it. Those are F.M. 473 and 3351. The town itself dates back to the late 1800’s, when the land was sold and the plots made. In September of 1835, Daniel L. Richardson was granted a league of land from Coahuila, Mexico. The land totaled 4,428 acres where Kendalia is today. In October a man by the name of Carl Vogel who was the editor of Boerne’s “Union Land Register” bought 200 acres from Richardson. A short time later he bought 50 more acres. In July of 1883 Vogel’s wife bought 363 acres from the sextons and then they decided to make up a town. On July 17, 1883 D.W. Grady, Kendall County surveyor, made the plat for Vogle and it was filed and recorded by H. Theis, County Clerk, County of Kendall in the state of Texas. The people that originally settled the Kendalia area came from close by areas such as Blanco and New Braunfels, but some came straight from Germany.
ECONOMY:
The economy in the area varied during the prosperous years. Most residents were involved in farming and ranching. Cotton was the major farming crop of the area. There was a big cotton gin in the middle of town that made it easy for the farmers to get their crops to market. Another one of the big industries of the area was ranching. Sheep and cattle were real big during the years that Kendalia was a prosperous community. They use to drive their herds of cattle into San Antonio to take them to market. Ranching is still the biggest industry in the area today. There are still many families out in Kendalia that make their living raising and selling livestock at the auctions. Their means of transportation is quite a bit different from a hundred years ago. They don’t have to saddle up their horses and spend a week on a cattle drive to get their animals into San Antonio to market. Trucks and trailers are the means of transportation in today’s world. There was even a ranch in the area that raised mules for the Union Army. One ranch in the area was big into making charcoal as their way to make money. Charcoal was easy to make out in the Hill Country because it was made out of cedar. The cedar was set on fire and then they packed mud around it and let it smolder. There was one place that you could go to get just about anything made that you needed. A man by the name of Adolph Ben Jonas was the town’s local blacksmith. Jonas was born at Twin Sisters and moved to Kendalia as a young married man. He started out as a rancher in the area but then in 1904 started blacksmithing. He had his own shop and continued that occupation for over 50 years. Jonas was known as an all around blacksmith. He shod horses in his younger years, made his own horse shoes, and made many axes and knives. He even made his own handles to go along with them. He even used to oil temper all of the metal for a good edge. That helped it to hold its edge for a longer period of time so it wouldn’t have to be sharpened as often.
HISTORICALLY SIGNIFICANT STORIES:
Crime was pretty much unheard of out in Kendalia. It was one of those, everyone knew everyone type communities, so they never had any problems with anything. For the most part, it still is that way. Although, the oldtimers in the community say that they used to be able to go down the street and know everyone along the way but don’t know anyone anymore. It was a big deal when they had their first run in with a couple of robbers. They didn’t know what was going on at the time because they had never dealt with anything like that before. Even though they didn’t have to worry about crime in the area, they had to be careful about something else. Indian attacks were not unusual in the area about the time Kendalia was becoming a city. I was told of one Indian attack that took the lives of two men that were minding their own business working their land when Indians came and murdered them without any warning.
The old Kendalia schoolhouse; Present day library
HISTORICAL LANDMARKS:
The streets of Kendalia mainly got their names from the predominant men of the community. Most of the roads from back then are still the same roads. But a lot of the town plot has changed. Along with the roads, there are also a few of the original buildings standing from back then. Most of them are still being used, whether for business or maybe it is someone’s home now. Streets and buildings aren’t the only landmarks that make Kendalia the wonderful place that it is. The town is located far away from any major city, and that’s what makes it so special. You can go outside and just look for miles and see nothing but other residences and hills. Edge Falls use to be the major attraction to go see in Kendalia. It is a waterfall that lies on a family owned ranch that has been there forever. Anyone that wanted to go out onto the ranch and visit the falls was able to and absorb the beauty of the surroundings, until a fatal accident occurred out at the falls. Because of the liability, the owners of the ranch shut it off to the public and not just anybody can go out and look at it whenever they want. There were originally three schools in the area of Kendalia. There was one on the Edge property on the lower Curry creek, another on the Shepard ranch and also the Mountain Gap School that eventually moved into the city of Kendalia. Even though there aren’t any schools in Kendalia anymore the building that it was in is still in use as the public library. Kendalia merged with the Blanco school system and all the kids that attended school had to move to the Blanco schools. There are two churches in Kendalia, and one of the churches is still in the original building that was built in the late 1800’s. The city itself doesn’t have just one cemetery. There are a number of small family cemeteries in the area around town. There wasn’t just one big cemetery located in town like most of the towns and cities are today. That just wasn’t the way things were done back in those days.
The old longhorn general store
UNUSUAL EVENTS?:
The question that stayed in the back of my mind before I did any research on the city of Kendalia was; Why is Kendalia the way it is today? At first, that seems like a stupid question to ask someone but you could be suprised when you hear what they have to say. At one point in history it was said that Kendalia would probubly become the county seat of Kendall county. They thought all of this because the city was doing so well and so prosperous that everybody wanted to move to Kendalia. The Hill Country has always been a sought-after place in which to live. According to Charlie Goodman, it is believed that the air in Kendall County could work magic on people suffering from all sorts of illnesses, particularly those related to the lungs. Many people flocked to the Hill Country to get away from the big city like it is today. They might have been moving out of the city to get away from all their problems or perhaps it was just the beauty and peacefulness that attracted all the people to come out of the crowded cities. One of the reasons that Kendalia has stayed about the same size since the most prosperous years has to do with the boll weevil. Farmers didn't have the slightest idea what was happening until it was too late. What happened was, the cotton crops in the area were attacked by these boll weevils and there wasn't anything that the farmers could do to stop it from happening. It wasn't long before all the cotton crops in the surrounding areas were destroyed and everything was lost. That tragedy played a major role in the fall of the farming economy in the Kendalia Texas area.
CONNECTIONS TO COURSE THEMES:
You can drive through Kendalia and feel like you went back in time for a brief minute. The basic set-up of Kendalia hasn't change that much from the original land plat that was designed in the late 1800's. Most of the original roads are still there with the same names as always, and some of the original buildings are still in use. The homes that you pass by have a real coservative ranch style look to them since most of them are quite a few years old. The community library has just now incorporated electronic book lending. Many of the larger cities have had this new technology for many years and finally Kendalia is obtaining a system too. It makes the job of the librarian much easier and faster with fewer opportunities of making errors. The Kendalia area is also becoming the hotspot for families to move to from the big city. Every day there are more and more people moving out towards Kendalia from the San Antonio area to get out of the city and move to the country. You are starting to see the big ranches of the area turning into large subdivisions and full of houses. I can't say that I blame them for wanting to move out to live and raise a family out in the country because it is such a wonderful and peaceful place to live.
INTERVIEW WITH THEKLA WENGENROTH:
Mrs. Wengenroth has resided in Kendalia since January of 1920. She was born in Blanco just up the road and moved to Kendalia with her family and has called it home ever since. When I asked the reason for moving to Kendalia she simply answered, “That her father just decided to pick up and move to Kendalia, so there she was with them.”
I started off the interview asking about how it was to be a child growing up in those days. She explained that growing up as a kid in those days wasn’t easy by any means. When children went to school they had to walk a ways most of the time. She talked about having to ride a buggy to school for six miles when she went in Blanco. The children of Kendalia both rode horses or mules and walked on foot. There was plenty of chore work around the house and land. Back then people had to live off the land as much as possible so everyone in the household had specific chores that they had to do everyday whether they liked it or not. Life didn't get any easier after you grew up. When you became an adult you just had more and more responsibilities to take care of. Mrs. Wengenroth told me that when she married in 1930 she would be out in the fields alongside her husband helping him out and repairing fences that would be torn down because of the high waters of the nearby Curry creek
Entertainment was few and far between back in those days. People didn't have the luxury of dropping what they were doing and have fun whenever they wanted to. Dances were held every Saturday night in the dancehall in Kendalia. It served as a time to get away from the house and visit with the other people of the community while enjoying the music that was played and just have a good time.
TIES TO THE COMMUNITY:
Most of the people that reside in Kendalia are not the first generation to live there. Most of them are third and fourth generations and they grew up there with their parents and grandparents. Today there are fewer and fewer people that have lived there all there life and that is what causes change and growth. Some day Kendalia might grow into a large and prosperous city but that won't happen overnight, but it's hard to say if a community will stay together and grow or just fall apart and get smaller.
FUTURE PROSPECTS:
Kendalia has been the same general size for many years. I don't see it changing much for many years to come. The oldtimers that live there have kept it just about the same since they had grown up. They don't see any need in changing something or fixing something that isn't broken. More than likely, when all the elders of the community are gone it will start seeing changes made to the area, and hopefully they will be for the good.
WEBSITES:
Handbook of Texas online
Texas Escapes
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Kendalia History Vol. 1: A book in the Kendalia library that told the history of it's beginnings
Kendalia History Vol. 2: Another book that talked about the people that lived there and the land around it
Kendalia Geneology: book with the family ties to the first settlers of Kendalia
Kendalia Schools: Talked about the schools that were around and where they were along with class rosters
Thekla Wengenroth: Helped out with what it was like to grow up and live back then,talked about what was done work wise in those days
Donna Jonas: Librarian that helped me with the books that were avalible to look at, and also told me about the history of the buildings and the town plot
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