Sattler Post Office

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Sattler Post Office, out here in Comal County. Now, some families just pass through a place. And then there are families like the Sattlers, who seem to show up at the very beginning of things and just keep going.

Wilhelm Sattler, who also went by William, came in as a founding colonist of New Braunfels. That already puts him in rare company. But William wasn't the kind of man to stay put in town.

He made his way out into this part of Comal County, put down roots, and eventually decided that the folks out here needed their mail delivered with some kind of regularity. So he went and applied for a contract with the U.S. government for mail service. And in 1856, the Sattler post office was granted.

William's son Henry stepped in as the first postmaster. The whole operation started right there in the Sattler house itself, which, when you think about it, makes a certain kind of frontier sense. Why build something new when you've already got four walls and a roof?

But it didn't stay in the house for long. The post office soon was relocated to a cabin on the family homestead. Not just any cabin, mind you.

One of three built right there on the property. And this one was put together the way things were built when you used what the land gave you. Native juniper logs, held together with saddle notching, the gaps chinked with straw and caliche mud.

Simple, sturdy, and built to last. That little cabin served as the home of the Sattler Post Office all the way until 1880. Twenty-four years of mail passing through juniper walls, held together with mud and straw and the particular stubbornness of a family that started with a colony and ended up with a post office carved right into the Texas Hill Country.

Some legacies get carved in marble. The Sattlers carved theirs in juniper.

What the marker says

A founding colonist in New Braunfels, Wilhelm (William) Sattler later made his home in this area of Comal County and applied for a contract with the U.S. government for mail service. The Sattler post office was granted in 1856, with William's son Henry as first postmaster. Originally located in the Sattler house, it soon was relocated to this cabin, one of three built on the family homestead. Constructed of native juniper logs held together with simple saddle notching and chinking of straw and caliche mud, the cabin last housed the Sattler Post Office in 1880. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2002