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Carrizo Springs
1940s Street scene
Postcard courtesy www.rootsweb.com/ %7Etxpstcrd/ |
History in
a Pecan Shell
The names: Phillip
Dimitt had received the original grant of land as a naturalized Mexican
citizen. He became the honoree for the county name - although the
legislature misspelled Dimitt. People have grown fond of the misspelling
over the years and so it has been kept.
Carrizo is Spanish for reeds.
Carrizo Springs is the oldest town in Dimmit
County. The name comes from the local springs (and the reeds)
and the settlement began around 1865. Families from Atascosa
County moved into the area that year and they were joined the
following year with a group from Goliad.
Dimmit County was
organized in 1880 and Carrizo Springs was designated the county seat.
In 1880 early settler Levi English donated land for the town including
schools, churches, and a courthouse.
In 1884 the Dimmit
County courthouse was finished and the Carrizo Springs Javelin
was first published.
The population was a healthy 500 persons in 1885.
In 1900 artesian water was used to irrigate crops and new settlers
arrived. In 1904 thirty wells were irrigating 1,000 acres of cropland.
In 1910 the town incorporated when the San Antonio, Uvalde and
Gulf Railroad came to town.
The town had 1,200 people by 1915, and the town was electrified the
next year. The 20s began with a drought, but later in the decade they
caught up with the rest of the nation's prosperity. Streets were paved
and the courthouse
was remodeled.
By 1928 the population had reached 2,500.
Carrizo Springs' growth kept it the dominant city in Dimmit
County and it had the only newspaper and only radio station in
the county in 1984.
In 1988 the population was 7,553. |
Carrizo Springs,
Texas Landmarks
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Carrizo Springs
First Baptist Church
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark
706 Houston St.
28° 31' 22.74" N, 99° 51' 43.49" W
TE photo,
2002 |
Historical Marker:
First Baptist
Church
First church built
by Texas Baptists west of Nueces River. Organized May 27, 1878. Building
constructed 1888-1891 on land donated by Levi and Matilda English.
Designed by pastor, Rev. R. H. Brown. Congregation and other citizens
furnished labor to burn brick and lime, haul the lumber from Cotulla,
and put up the building. Of the seven charter members, two were former
Methodists and one man was an ex-slave.
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1966 |
South Texas architecture
in Carrizo Springs
TE photo,
2002 |
Burleson Cemetery
4 miles NW of Carrizo Springs on US 277
TE photo,
2002 |
Historical Marker:
Burleson Cemetery
Among the earliest
settlers in the area later named Dimmit
County, the Burleson family settled near Carrizo Springs between
1865 and 1870. James A. (1869-1895), Joseph E. (1870-1895), and Samuel
(1877-1895) Burleson died suddenly, probably of food poisoning. The
following July, Marion M. Burleson (1853-1895) succumbed to heat stroke
and was buried on family land with his brothers and a Burleson child.
As time passed, the graves on this site became a mystery. Investigations
at the end of the twentieth century by the Texas Department of Transportation
found it to be the final resting place of the Burleson family.
(1998)
More Texas Cemeteries |
1936 Texas Centennial
Marker (FM 1433 at Dam at south end of lake):
Espantosa Lake
Most famous camping ground on Presidio Road. Earliest route between
Texas and Coahuila. Many legends center about the lake. Here in 1876
Texas Rangers killed a band of desperadoes.
1936)
More Texas Lakes |
Carrizo Springs
Chronicles
The
Vidalia Onion
"Toombs County, Georgia is acknowledged to be the birthplace
of the Vidallia Onion. Georgia had been having a problem with weeds
that were growing faster than the locally planted onion sets. Texas
transplants, it was hoped, would give the farmers a much-needed
head start and so Texas Granex onions from Carrizo Springs were
shipped there in 1952. ..." more
Henigan
Water by Mike Cox ("Texas
Tales"column)
"...Word of the amazing restorative qualities of the water
spread faster than the contents of a spilled bucket. The Javelin
said the people of Carrizo Springs got so healthy that the local
doctors practically fell into poverty...."
South
Texas Justice by Dianne West Short
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Dimmit County
Chamber of Commerce
310 West Nopal / P. O. Box 699
Carrizo Springs, TX 78834-6699
(830) 876-5205
http://www.dimmitcountytx.com/ |
| Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories,
landmarks and recent or vintage photos, please contact
us. |
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