Cibolo
Cibolo, Guadalupe County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A town began to grow here after the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railroad built a line through western Guadalupe County in 1875. A general store, operated by George Schlather and Ernst Jenull, was opened the following year to serve the predominantly German population. A post office was established in 1876, and the town was named Cibolo from an Indian word for buffalo. The community was also known as Fromme's Store after Charles Fromme purchased the general store in 1882. Cibolo was officially incorporated in 1965. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Cibolo took root in 1875 when the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railroad pushed a line across western Guadalupe County. A general store opened the next year to serve the largely German settlers, and a post office followed in 1876, giving the town a name drawn from an Indian word for buffalo. For a time it was also called Fromme's Store after Charles Fromme bought the business in 1882; the community finally incorporated in 1965.
Why it matters
Cibolo is a textbook example of the railroad town — a settlement that existed because the tracks did — and of the German immigrant communities that shaped the culture of the Texas Hill Country.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the decades after the Civil War, railroads remade Texas. Where track was laid, towns appeared, sometimes almost overnight. Where it wasn't, older settlements often withered. Construction pushed across South and Central Texas in the 1870s, and for the farmers and ranchers along the way, the arrival of a line changed everything about how they bought, sold and traveled.
The Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railroad was one of the most important of these lines. Its purpose was to connect the Gulf Coast with San Antonio, and in time it became part of a transcontinental southern route. In 1875 it built through western Guadalupe County, and the town of Cibolo grew up along it.
The land the tracks crossed was already home to many German-speaking families. Beginning in the 1840s, large numbers of German immigrants had settled in the hill and prairie country north and east of San Antonio, around towns such as New Braunfels and Seguin. By the 1870s their farms, churches, schools and customs were a defining part of the region.
So Cibolo had two roots: a new railroad and an established immigrant farming community. The railroad brought the town, and the German settlers already living nearby made it work.
People & events
The town's first businesses followed quickly on the rails. In 1876, the year after the line came through, George Schlather and Ernst Jenull opened a general store to serve the mostly German population. A rural general store was much more than a shop. It was the place to buy tools, cloth, coffee and sugar, to sell eggs and produce, to pick up mail and to catch up on news.
A post office was also established in 1876, and with it came an official name: Cibolo, from what the marker describes as an Indian word for buffalo. The word had long been used across the Southwest for the American bison, and it was also the name of the nearby creek. It recalls a time when buffalo roamed the region, well before the railroad or the German farms.
In 1882 Charles Fromme bought the general store, and the business was so central to the community that for a time the town itself was known as Fromme's Store. That tells you something about frontier towns: before city halls and paved streets, a place was often named for the counter where everyone did business.
Cibolo remained a small, unincorporated community for nearly a century. It was formally incorporated only in 1965, long after the railroad had first brought it into being.
Its place in the American story
Cibolo is a classic railroad town. Across the American West and South in the late nineteenth century, railroads created thousands of communities, choosing station sites, attracting merchants and determining which places would grow. Many towns on today's map exist simply because a railroad needed a stop there.
The town also reflects one of the great immigration stories of the nineteenth century. German-speaking newcomers settled heavily in Texas, as they did in the Midwest, and brought their own languages, churches, schools, music and farming traditions. In parts of Central Texas, German was spoken in homes and churches for generations.
Cibolo's name connects it to an even older layer of history: the bison that once covered the plains and the Native peoples who hunted them. In one word, the town's name points back to the world that existed before the rails.
The long gap between settlement and incorporation is also typical. Many American communities lived for decades as informal rural places held together by a store, a post office and a church, and only formalized themselves when twentieth-century growth demanded services and local government. Cibolo's later growth as part of the greater San Antonio area continues that story of a place reshaped by transportation.
If you visit
Start with the railroad. The town grew up because of the tracks, so it's worth getting a sense of where the line runs and how the older part of town relates to it. That layout is the town's founding history, still visible on the ground.
Look for traces of the German heritage that shaped the area: family names on buildings and in cemeteries, older churches and the general character of the surrounding farm country. This part of Texas still celebrates its German roots in many ways, and the towns nearby make good companions on a drive.
Cibolo is now part of the fast-growing area northeast of San Antonio, so you'll see new development alongside older history. Look at the marker with that contrast in mind. The modern town and the 1870s railroad stop are the same place at different points in its life.
For a road trip, combine Cibolo with nearby historic towns like New Braunfels and Seguin to see how the German settlement of Central Texas developed. Allow time for the creek and countryside that gave the town its name, and imagine the buffalo that once grazed here.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
Plan your visit
NearbyMake a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.
Attractions
- Morgan's Wonderland9.5 mi away · 5223 David Edwards Drive, San Antonio, TX
- Off-Road Adventure Ride9.5 mi away
- Morgan's Inspiration Island9.6 mi away · 5223 David Edwards Drive, San Antonio, TX
- Amazing Air10.4 mi away · 7702 North Interstate Highway 35, San Antonio, TX
- Green Acres Golf and Games13.4 mi away
Places data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Hours and details change — call ahead.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · George Schlather
- · Ernst Jenull
- · Charles Fromme
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Schertz
Schertz, TX
Schertz began in the 1840s when German immigrants from the New Braunfels area spread out in search of good farmland along Cibolo Creek. The community lived by agriculture until the Galveston, Harrisburg, and San Antonio Railroad arrived about 1877, linking it to San Antonio and wider markets. Once known as Cibolo Pit and Cutoff, the town took the name Schertz — for early settler Sebastian Schertz — when its post office opened in 1882.
Old Chihuahua Road
La Vernia, TX
The Old Chihuahua Road ran from central Mexico to the Texas coast at Indianola, a cart route worn by traders, raiders, and newcomers alike. Alsatian, German, Polish, and Irish immigrants followed it inland seeking a fresh start, even as it doubled as a path for Indian raiding parties. After 1835 it carried gold and silver bound for export, and by the 1850s it served as a route for army travel.
Site of Geier and Schmid Farm
Universal City, TX
German immigrants Wilhelm Geier and his family arrived at Galveston in 1849 from Wolfenbüttel, and after settling in New Braunfels their daughter Johanna married fellow immigrant Martin Schmid. In 1855 the families moved to the community then called Cibolo (later Selma), buying 127 acres they eventually split between them. Martin, a Confederate cavalry veteran, was buried here in 1880, founding a family cemetery; the neighboring Kincaid graves hold a Kentucky-born blacksmith and his kin. Fences and headstones have long since vanished from both burial grounds.
Founding of Town of Marion, 1877
Marion, TX
Marion owes its existence to the railroad. When the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railway pushed west of the Guadalupe to link inland Texas with Gulf ports, investor Col. Thomas W. Peirce bought land near a country store and platted a town, naming it for his daughter and securing a post office in 1877. Within a year its three-acre railyard was shipping in volume, and by 1900 schools and churches had made it a settled community.