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SABINAL

1900

As per the Uvalde School Records, by this time there were 156 students in 3 schools in Sabinal.

1906

Sabinal’s population was about 500 and was surrounded by 1,500 acres of cultivated land.  W.D.Heard served as a mayor of the town.  Telephone Company was granted a franchise, the city water, and the fire departments were organized.

1907

Sabinal Christian college was founded by members of the Church of Christ.

1911

Sabinal was a commercial and agricultural center; an estimated 35,000 acres were under cultivation in the area, and as many as five general stores supplied an estimated population of 2,500.  The cotton industry was burgeoning and local stock raisers were producing thousands of hogs cattle and goats.

1914

Sabinal had a population of 2,000 who supported Baptist, Catholic, Christian, Methodist and Presbyterian churches, a high school and a grade school, an ice plant, two banks, three cotton gins and a weekly newspaper called “The Sentinel”, started by publisher Harold Baldwin in the year 1890.

1925

A new high school was constructed near the center of town, when Sabinal had an estimated population of 1,458.

1935

Ranchers in the Sabinal area principally raised cattle, sheep, and goats; they produced thousands of pounds of wool and mohair annually.  Area farmers raised oats, corn, sorghum grains and cotton.

1941

Sabinal City Hall was built.

1854

Sabinal was founded in 1854 by Thomas B. Hammer.  He was the first settler and operated a stage stop at the east bank of the Sabinal River.  Later, he became the first postmaster at the post office opened in Sabinal, in Oct 1854.  Sabinal was named by the Spanish for ‘Rio Sabinal’ and Cypress trees along the river.

1856

The second United States cavalry established Camp Sabinal on the riverbank opposite Hammer’s Station, to protect people and commerce on the road from San Antonio to El Paso and to protect settlers from hostile Indians and outlaws.  By the time of the Civil War, Sabinal was on the mail route and wagon trail from San Antonio to Mexico.

1874

Pioneer merchant Louis M. Peters built a successful general store.

1881

The railroad arrived in Sabinal. With the coming of the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1881, the rest of the community was moved to its present site. Angora goats imported from Turkey were brought into the Sabinal area.

1884

Sabinal had an estimated population of 150, a public school, two churches, and a hotel; local ranchers were shipping wool, livestock, and hides.

1893

Two hotels, the Mitchell house, and Sabinal Hotel were serving a growing number of visitors to the city.  Corn, cotton, oats, and sugar cane were cultivated on farms around the community, many of which utilized the “air-motor, water, well, windmill” available at John T. Wilson’s lumberyard to irrigate their crops.

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