Cibolo

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I tell it to you. Picture western Guadalupe County, 1875. The Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railroad laid a line straight through, and whenever a railroad comes through, you'd best believe a town is not far behind.

Sure enough, one started growin right there. The following year, George Schlather and Ernst Jenull opened a general store to serve the people who had settled in around them, a predominantly German population, and those folks had needs, and Schlather and Jenull were ready to meet them. Then, also in 1876, a post office was established, and the town got a name.

Cibolo. From an Indian word for buffalo. Say it slow.

Cibolo. It sits in the mouth just right. Now, the story didn't stop with a name.

In 1882, a man named Charles Fromme purchased that general store, and for a time the whole community went by Fromme's Store. That is the kind of thing that happens in a small town. One man buys the right building and suddenly his name is on the map, at least in conversation.

But Cibolo held on, the name and the town both, through the years and the generations, all the way to 1965, when it was officially incorporated. That same year is a long way from a railroad crew driving iron through the county in 1875. From a general store and a post office to an incorporated city.

The marker that tells this story was placed in 1986, the year Texas marked its sesquicentennial, one hundred and fifty years from 1836. And Cibolo was right there, part of that count, with a story worth the telling.

What the marker says

A town began to grow here after the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railroad built a line through western Guadalupe County in 1875. A general store, operated by George Schlather and Ernst Jenull, was opened the following year to serve the predominantly German population. A post office was established in 1876, and the town was named Cibolo from an Indian word for buffalo. The community was also known as Fromme's Store after Charles Fromme purchased the general store in 1882. Cibolo was officially incorporated in 1965. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986.