Knickerbocker

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. This is the story of Knickerbocker, out in Tom Green County. Now, the name alone ought to stop you in your tracks, and once you know where it came from, you'll understand why.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Let's start at the beginning, with the land itself. Down in the Dove Creek valley, there was something precious in West Texas: water.

Irrigable land and a reliable water supply, and word of that combination traveled fast in the 1870s. Farmers, sheepmen, cattlemen, they all came. First to arrive were the Baze brothers, who in 1875 dug an irrigation ditch to grow melons and hay for nearby Fort Concho.

That's right, somebody had to feed that fort, and the Baze brothers figured they were the ones to do it. Others followed, and the names read like a roll call of ambition: cattleman Joseph Schmidt, cotton farmer S. D.

Arthur, and the Ryan, Martinez, Jaques, Villareal, Soto, Byler, Atkins, Beck, Duncan, Foster, and Etheridge families. All of them drawn to that creek, that water, that possibility. Then, in 1877, something almost peculiar happened.

A pair of New Yorkers, Morgan and Lawrence Grinnell, rode into the valley alongside Joseph Tweedy and J. B. Reynolds, and they brought their sheep with them.

Now, these weren't men who'd grown up thinking about Dove Creek, Texas. They were men who'd read their Washington Irving, apparently, because when it came time to name their ranch headquarters, they reached all the way to Irving's character Diedrich Knickerbocker. That name, born from a New York writer's imagination, took root right here in West Texas soil.

The Knickerbocker Post Office was established in 1881, which tells you the place was real enough and permanent enough to warrant its own mail. Then in 1889 the whole town picked itself up and moved, just a little, south of the original site, to tap a new water supply. Still chasing that water.

By 1890, Knickerbocker was humming. Stores, hotels, saloons, blacksmith shops, two churches, and two schools. That's a community.

That's people putting down roots and meaning it. But West Texas settlements have a way of meeting forces bigger than themselves, and Knickerbocker met the automobile and improved road systems. As the marker puts it, that was typical of many West Texas rural areas.

Farmers left to find work in San Angelo, eighteen miles to the northeast. The town thinned out. Got quiet.

But here's where the story lands, and it lands soft rather than hard. The people of Knickerbocker left a rich heritage. Many of their descendants still live in the area.

A New York literary name, a hand-dug irrigation ditch, a town that moved itself south for a drink of water, and descendants still out there on that land. That's Knickerbocker.

What the marker says

Attracted by irrigable land and the available water supply in Dove Creek, farmers, sheepmen, and cattlemen came to this area in the 1870s. First to arrive were the Baze brothers, who dug an irrigation ditch in 1875 to grow melons and hay for nearby Fort Concho. Others soon followed, including cattleman Joseph Schmidt, cotton farmer S. D. Arthur, and the Ryan, Martinez, Jaques, Villareal, Soto, Byler, Atkins, Beck, Duncan, Foster, and Etheridge families. In 1877 New Yorkers Morgan and Lawrence Grinnell, Joseph Tweedy, and J. B. Reynolds drove their sheep into the valley. They named their ranch headquarters after Washington Irving's character Diedrich Knickerbocker. The Knickerbocker Post Office was established in 1881. In 1889 the town was moved to a location just south of the original site in order to tap a new water supply. By 1890 the settlement had stores, hotels, saloons, blacksmith shops, two churches, and two schools. As was typical of many West Texas rural areas, Knickerbocker declined with the advent of the automobile and improved road systems. Farmers left to find work in San Angelo (18 mi. NE). The settlers of Knickerbocker, however, left a rich heritage. Many of their descendants still live in the area. (1983)