Bandera County, Texas
History, Records, Facts and Genealogy

Bandera County Facts

Bandera County was created in 1856 and formed from Bexar and Uvalde Counties. Bandera County was named for Bandera Pass, named in turn for the Spanish word for flag. The County Seat is Bandera. The Official County website is located at http://www.banderacounty.org. The Bandera County courthouse was built in Renaissance Revival Style of limestone in 1890. B.F. Trester designed the structure that was built by Ed Braden & Sons for $19,914. Trester died before the courthouse was finished so the county had architect E. Huffmeyer complete the job.

Areas adjacent to Bandera County are Kerr County (north), Kendall County (northeast), Bexar County (southeast), Medina County (south), Uvalde County (southwest), Real County (west)

See also Extended History for more historical details.

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Bandera County Court Records

Bandera County Vital Records

Bandera County Census Records

Bandera County Maps & Atlases

Bandera County Military Records

Bandera County Tax Records

Bandera County Genealogical Addresses

Bandera County Church & Cemeteries

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

The use of published genealogies, electronic files containing genealogical lineage, and other compiled sources can be of tremendous value to a researcher.

When view family trees online or not, be sure to only take the info at face value and always follow up with your own sources or verify the ones they provide. Below is a list of online resources for Bandera County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information. Email us with websites containing Bandera County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:

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Extended History

Bandera County is twenty-five miles northwest of San Antonio in the Edwards Plateau region of southwest Texas. It is bordered by Kerr and Kendall counties on the north, Bexar County on the east, Medina and Uvalde counties on the south, and Real County on the west. The county seat and largest town is Bandera.

Bandera County comprises an area of 793 square miles. The western part of the county is drained by the Sabinal River and the eastern part by the Medina River. The alkaline and generally shallow soils overlie limy subsoils. The vegetation consists primarily of grasses such as bluestems, grama, buffalo grass, winter grass, and wild ryes. Along the many streams of the county grow cedar, post oak, Spanish oak, live oak, pecan, and cypress trees. Deer and turkey are plentiful, but there are no large predators. Sheep, goat, cattle, and poultry raising are the chief occupations. Only 11 to 20 percent of the land in the county is considered prime farmland. Crops include corn, oats, hay, pecans, and some grain sorghums.

The region has been the site of human habitation for several thousand years. Archeological artifacts suggest that the earliest human inhabitants arrived around 6,000 to 10,000 years ago and settled in rockshelters. Lipan Apaches and, later, Comanches subsequently drifted into the area.

The first Europeans to set foot in what is now Bandera County were the Spanish, who probably explored the region in the early eighteenth century. Bandera is Spanish for "flag," and there are a number of colorful accounts as to how the county was named. One has it that a Spanish general named Bandera led a punitive expedition in the area against the Apaches after the Indians raided San Antonio de Béxar. Another relates that after pursuing the Indians to Bandera Pass the Spanish left a flag or flags to warn them against future raids. And a third legend claims that in 1752 (or 1732) a council was held between Spanish and Indian leaders, during which the Spanish pledged never to go north of the pass if the Indians agreed to cease their raids in the south, and a red flag was placed on the pass as a symbol of the treaty.

Though it is not clear if one or any of these accounts is true, the name was in use by 1842, when a group of Texas Rangers under the command of Col. John Coffee (Jack) Hays defeated a large party of Comanches at Bandera Pass. In 1852 John James, Charles S. DeMontel, and John J. Herndon entered into a partnership to acquire land "in and above the mountains, commencing ten or fifteen miles above Castroville." Their purpose was to establish a town on the Medina River with a sawmill in order to cut the huge cypress trees that grew there for shingles. In 1853, James and DeMontel surveyed and platted the town of Bandera, and in early 1853 A. M. Milstead, Thomas Odem, P. D. Saner, and their families camped along the river and began making cypress shingles. By the fall of the same year the firm of James, Montel and Company built a horse-powered sawmill and opened a commissary store.

In March 1854 a group of Mormons led by elder Lyman Wight reached Bandera. The colony, numbering approximately 250, eventually settled a few miles below the town at a site known for many years as "Mormon Camp," which is now covered by Medina Lake. For a time the Mormons manufactured tables, chairs, and other furnishings, which they sold in San Antonio. But Wight died before the colony was fully established, and many of the colony moved on to Utah or settled in San Antonio. A small number, however, stayed, and their descendants still live in the area.

In February 1855 sixteen Polish families arrived in Bandera to work in James and DeMontel's sawmill, and in August of the same year August Klappenbach opened the first store and post office. On January 25, 1856, the legislature marked off Bandera County from portions of Bexar County; the new county was formally organized on March 10, 1856.

Though Bandera County had schools in 1857 and 1858, taught by teachers named P. P. Pool and Koenigheim, the area maintained its frontier character until well after the Civil War. Indian attacks were frequent. Despite the establishment of Camp Verde just over the line in Kerr County, settlers lived in constant fear of raids. As late as 1860 the population was only 399, the majority of whom were recent immigrants from East Texas or from the states of the Old South. As was typically the case on the western edge of settlement, men outnumbered women (222 to 167), and the county had only twelve slaves. Farming was still at a subsistence level; as late as 1860 improved acres in the county totaled only 1,461, planted in wheat, corn, beans, and a few vegetables.

Because of its distance from the battlefields and the fact that there were so few slaves in the county, Bandera County was spared much of the trauma of the war and Reconstruction. The population continued to grow slowly, and by 1870 the number of residents in the county was still only 649, most of whom lived in or near the settlement of Bandera. The decade of the 1870s, however, brought signs that Bandera County was slowly losing its frontier character. Indian attacks became less and less frequent, new stores opened, and stone increasingly replaced cedar logs as a building material.

Much of the economy in the early postwar period was dependent on cattle ranching. In 1870 the county had 4,740 cattle, and Bandera County was a staging area for cattle drives up the Western Trail. Local farm boys became cowboys, ranchers built holding pens and signed on as trail bosses, storekeepers contracted as outfitters, and the town of Bandera briefly boomed. During the late 1870s, however, the era of the great cattle drives was waning, and sheep, which were easier to feed on the sparse vegetation in the county, gradually replaced cattle. By 1880 sheep outnumbered cattle 32,974 to 9,471, and Bandera County became an increasingly important source of wool. In 1880, the county produced 296,578 pounds of wool, which accounted for its most important export product. Angora goats also began to raised in large numbers in this period, and mohair began to be shipped in significant quantities during the late 1880s (see sheep ranching, goat ranching, wool and mohair industry). The lack of good roads, however, kept the county relatively isolated. Because of the county's hilly terrain, the railroads bypassed it to the north or south, and ranchers were forced to use the arduous overland road to ship their products to market in San Antonio.

Despite the relative hardships, numerous new settlers arrived during the 1870s. In 1880 the population had grown to 2,158, and by 1890 the number of residents stood at 3,795. As before, the great majority of new settlers came from the South, though recent immigrants, especially Germans, formed an increasingly larger portion of the county's residents.

During the late 1880s attempts were made to introduce large-scale farming in Bandera County; for a time cotton was grown as a commercial crop. The amount of cropland harvested, however, remained small, and most landowners found it more profitable to raise sheep and goats on the thin limestone soils.

With the cattle drives over and much of the best land worn out from farming and overgrazing, however, the economy declined. The county population peaked in 1900 at 5,332, and then began to fall as more and more residents moved on to seek their fortunes elsewhere. By 1920 the residents numbered 4,001, and by 1930, 3,784. The onset of the Great Depression brought a marked downturn in prices for wool and mohair, and by the early 1930s many ranchers and residents found themselves economically strapped. Road building and other government-funded projects helped to employ some locals, but the economy did not completely recover until the onset of World War II, when wool and mohair were in demand for the defense industries.

The county's population grew in the late 1930s and in 1940 reached 4,234, but in the years after World War II it fell again; between 1950 and 1960 it fell from 4,385 to 3,892. During the 1960s, however, the number of inhabitants grew modestly, and in 1970 the population was 4,747. Subsequently the county has seen impressive growth, largely due to the influx of new residents from San Antonio. In 1980 the population reached 7,084, and in 1991 it was 10,562. In 1990, 94.9 percent of the population was white, .2 percent black, .2 percent Asian, and .6 percent American Indian. Of the total population, 1,172 (11.1 percent) were of Hispanic descent. The largest towns were Bandera and Medina.

Religion has always played an important role in Bandera County. The Mormons organized their church shortly after arriving in 1854, and the following year the Polish immigrants, all of whom were Catholic, built a small log church where Father Leopold Moczygemba came to offer Mass and administer the sacraments once a month. St. Stanislaus Church is the second oldest Polish parish in the United States. The First Methodist Church was organized just after the Civil War, a Church of Christ began meeting in the 1870s, and the First Baptist Church was organized in 1883. In the mid-1980s Bandera had fifteen churches, with a estimated combined membership of 3,319. The largest denominations were Baptist, Catholic, and Methodist.

Bandera County, Texas
History, Records, Facts and Genealogy

Bandera County Court Records

See Also Texas Land Records, Marriage Records, Court & Probate Records

Bandera County Vital Records

See Also Vital Records in Texas

Bandera County Census Records

See Also Research In Census Records & Statewide Records that exist for Texas

Bandera County Maps & Atlases

See Also Research In State Map Collections

Bandera County Military Records

See Also Military Records in Texas

Bandera County Tax Records

See Also Research In Tax Records

Bandera County Genealogical Addresses

See Also Other Texas Genealogical Addresses

Bandera County Church & Cemeteries

See Also Church & Cemetery Records in Texas

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

Extended History

Bandera County, Texas History, Records, Facts and Genealogy

Bandera County Court Records

See Also Texas Land Records, Marriage Records, Court & Probate Records

Bandera County Vital Records

See Also Vital Records in Texas

Bandera County Census Records

See Also Research In Census Records & Statewide Records that exist for Texas

Bandera County Maps & Atlases

See Also Research In State Map Collections

Bandera County Military Records

See Also Military Records in Texas

Bandera County Tax Records

See Also Research In Tax Records

Bandera County Genealogical Addresses

See Also Other Texas Genealogical Addresses

Bandera County Church & Cemeteries

See Also Church & Cemetery Records in Texas

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

Extended History

Bandera County, Texas
History, Records, Facts and Genealogy