Eighty settlers in 1859 petitioned the Texas legislature to create a new county from Bexar, Comal and Blanco counties. The request was passed on December 3, 1861 by the Senate and approved by the House on January 8, 1862. On January 10, 1862 the act was signed to create Kendall County.
Here is an excerpt from the petition. They stated how they felt.
“We the undersigned residents of the headwaters of the Cibolo Creek, Balcones Creek, Sister Creek, Salinas Creek, Post Oak Hill Creek, and settlers on the Guadalupe River have been thrown from one County to the other within the last 5 years.”
“We belonged originally to Bexar and were well satisfied with this arrangement. We have since been annexed to Comal, Kerr, and Blanco County and each time lost by the change. Our connection to Blanco however is so unnatural, inconvenient, and intolerable that we believe our situation can not be made worse than it is now and any change would be agreeable.”
The kick off date for the 150th celebration will begin Saturday, April 28, 2012 at the historic court house. This is within two days of the first election, in the newly formed county, to vote for the county seat and for the officials. The date was April 26, 1862.
Kendall County was the only Texas county to be formed during the Civil War.
Biesele, Rudolph Leopold. The History of the German Settlements in Texas 1831-1861. Austin, TX: Eakin Press, 1987. The copyright was renewed by the German-Texas Heritage Society in 1987. The original copyright is 1930 by the author.
Conrad's Stories 