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SISTERDALE,
TEXAS
Kendall County,
Texas Hill Country
FM 1376 and FM 473
13 miles N of Boerne
13 miles E of Comfort
32 miles E of Kerrville
Population: 63 (2000 est)
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Former
Sisterdale Schoolhouse
Photo by John Troesser, 2002 |
History
in a Pecan Shell
Nicolaus Zink, the man who surveyed New Braunfels for Prince Carl
of Solms-Braunfels is credited with founding the town. The name comes
from Sister Creek. The tiny population grew with the arrival of "Forty-Eighters"
- dissidents (many of them intellectuals) leaving Europe after a failed
revolution.
Frederick Law Olmsted (noted landscape architect and creator of NYC's
Central Park) visited Sisterdale on his cross-country trip. Sisterdale
was granted a post office in 1851.
The community was open on its anti-slavery and pro-Union policies
- it's relative isolation probably protecting it from Confederate
reprisals. When the war was over, Sisterdale lived in blissful tranquility
- its population comprised of an estimated 150 people (1884). |
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Cotton
Gin, 1885
Photo by John Troesser, 2002 |
Sisterdale
had a store, gin and a factory for making Cypress shingles - an important
industry at that time.
In 1914 there were only 25 residents which doubled by the mid-20s.
In 1968 the estimate was sixty-three - the same number that appears
on the 2004 state map. |
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