Texas Historical Marker #02963
Knickerbocker. 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) #2963
FM 2335, Knickerbocker, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #02964
Knickerbocker Schools. Education for children in southwestern Tom Green County was available at Knickerbocker Schools as early as 1877. The Baze Subscription School, built by A. P. Baze (1833-1880) on his farm two miles north of Knickerbocker, operated from 1877 to 1899.The one-room schoolhouse had adobe walls, a shingled roof, and a pine floor. Children came on horseback to attend a six-month school term. As the population grew, the county built a frame schoolhouse about 1889 to replace the Baze School. In 1926 a red brick school building with three classrooms, an auditorium, and a central hall replaced the 1889 frame structure. In 1895, at the insistence of Dr. Boyd Cornick (1856-1933), a county school was built primarily for children of Mexican descent. This school was substantially remodeled in the 1930s. The two schools operated separately until 1948 when they were combined. Following the consolidation of area rural schools in 1960, children from the Knickerbocker area traveled by bus to school in Christoval. The red brick Knickerbocker school building became a post office and community center in 1989. (1992) #2964
FM 2335 & 584, Knickerbocker, TX, United States