Wimberley, Texas

Texas Small Town History Project Palo Alto College
Robert S. Pratt History 1302	Robert Hines November 16, 2006
Wimberley, Texas

Origins	Founders	Economy	Stories	Landmarks	Events
Interviews	City Overlook	Links	Annotated Bibliography

Origins

Wimberley is a small town, or what the inhabitants like to call a village, located in the Texas Hill Country, where you can observe the Blanco River and Cypress Creek. You can find Wimberley on Ranch Road 12, just 15 miles northwest of San Marcos, 45 miles southwest of Austin and 60 miles northeast of San Antonio. Wimberley village has a population of approximately 4,000 people today.

Historians say the semi-nomads were the first to inhabit the Texas Hill Country. Although there isn't any written history, they left behind part of their history by flint chips and stone tools. The first recorded history of this village came about in the mid 1800's. Once Texas became a state in 1845, the population began to grow. Some of the early settlers were veterans from the Battle at San Jacinto, who came with land grants from the government. At that time Wimberley shared the name Glendale with its neighboring town San Marcos.

Founders

Among the settlers who migrated to this new town was a man named, William C. Winters who had also brought along with him his family in the early 1850's. Winters was mainly known for building the town's only mills. He built the town's first saw mill powered by Cypress Creek and then later built a grist mill. Winters' mill served many communities around and it even contributed in the Confederacy's efforts during the Civil War. During that time the towns name changed from Glendale to Winters Mill. Winters-Wimberley house

Winters later died in 1864 and the mill was passed down to his son-in-law John Cude. Cude later rebuilt the mill which at that time had flood damage. In correspondence, the town name became Cude's Mill. Wimberley mill

In the 1870's a man named Pleasant Wimberley had moved to Cude's Mill with his family from Blanco County. Wimberley later was given the nickname "Old Man Pleas" because he was well liked and considered a friendly and generous man. He started the town's first non-profit organization and he contributed to the building of schools and churches. In 1874 Wimberley bought the mill from John Cude and his wife for only $8000 in gold. With that, he also obtained the Winters-Cude house and 200 acres of land. Displaying the importance of the mill to the town, the settlement was renamed Wimberley's Mill. Later in the 1880's the name evolved into Wimberleyville. Later the post office shortened the name by dropping the "ville" eventually resulting in what is today known as Wimberley.

Economy

According to the 2000 census, it is recorded that Wimberley and most of the other small Hill Country towns around it are made up of 94.52 % white, .18% black, 6.93% Hispanic and the rest are made up of scarce amounts of natives, Asians and Pacific Islanders. The population is made up mostly from either retired citizens who moved there as a means of living each day as a "vacation" or people who have lived there since they were young, dating back to the first generations there. This town is definitely on the top list for tourism in small towns. They receive most of their business on the popular "market days". This small town business firm is nearly almost made up of boutiques, art stores, craft galleries and restaurants. Wimberley isn't very advanced in modern technology, of course they have electricity, vehicles, television and radio, but they aren't advanced by means of hospitals, fire stations, and small business. Although they do have small medical clinics with doctors on stand by, and volunteer fire fighters, they still lack major components that would make them a small city, rather than a small town.

Stories

The Wimberley Corral was first built in the late 1940's, by the Avey Brothers. It's main purpose was as a meeting place for the community, where often they would talk about where they were going to build churches and other buildings. Later it was useful for being an outdoor theatre and still is one today. You can normally find the theatre playing up-to-date motion pictures between Memorial Day until Labor Day

Wimberley Corral

Landmarks

(left) This is a picture of Cypress Creek. This view is from across the street at the city hall.(middle) This is a picture of the Blanco River. The river serves as a great spot to go fishing and also swimming.(right) This is an elevated view of the Blanco River and also the old Blanco Bridge

(left) This is a picture of Winters-Wimberley house after being remodeled and refurnished.(right) Is a windmill that supposedly still operates, but this at one time was the windmill that supplied water to both natives of Wimberley and Blanco.

Events

CLICK HEREfor Wimberley Events

Interviews

Interview was conducted by Robert S. Pratt

Interviewee was Debra Maheney

Interview Session is Temporarily Down. Sorry for the inconvenience.

City Overlook