Cline Community
Cline, Uvalde County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Cline Community (1/2 mi. S. of this site) First settler, Celeste Pingenot came to this area in 1870. He built first house on south bank of Turkey Creek, 1871. Established stagecoach stand, store and inn; named it Wallace. He was first postmaster, commissioned, 1878. Community protected from Indians by small detachment of soldiers billeted at "The Spring," nearby. August Cline was employed by Pingenot to operate store and stagecoach stand. When railroad came in 1883, built rock house and post office on north bank. Became postmaster. Renamed community, Cline. (1967)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1870 Celeste Pingenot pushed into this stretch of the Uvalde County frontier, throwing up the first house on Turkey Creek and opening a stage stand, store, and inn he called Wallace. A small detachment of soldiers billeted nearby guarded the settlers, and when the railroad arrived in 1883 the community shifted to the north bank and took the name Cline after the storekeeper who became its postmaster.
Why it matters
The story traces a classic arc of Western settlement — stagecoach outpost to railroad town — that repeated across the American frontier as rails redrew the map of who thrived and who was left behind.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In 1870 the country around Turkey Creek in Uvalde County was still true frontier. Southwest Texas lay along the edge of a contested borderland, and settlers, soldiers, and Native peoples were all part of its unsettled story. The U.S. Army kept posts across the region, and small detachments were sometimes stationed where settlers needed protection.
Travel in this era meant the stagecoach. Stage lines linked scattered towns and forts, and stage stands, where drivers changed horses and passengers rested, often became the first seed of a settlement. A stand might grow a store, an inn, and then a post office.
In the early 1880s the railroad transformed the region. A rail line built across southwest Texas in 1883 became part of a southern transcontinental route linking the Gulf Coast with California. Towns that sat on the new tracks flourished, and communities rearranged themselves to be near them.
People & events
The story begins with Celeste Pingenot, the area's first settler, who arrived in 1870. The next year he built the first house on the south bank of Turkey Creek. He did not stop at a homestead. He set up a stagecoach stand, a store, and an inn, and he named the place Wallace. In 1878 he was commissioned as its first postmaster.
The frontier was not quiet. A small detachment of soldiers was billeted at a nearby spot known simply as "The Spring," and the marker records that it protected the community from Indian raids. That detail captures the uncertainty of the time and place.
Then came August Cline. Pingenot hired him to run the store and stagecoach stand. When the railroad arrived in 1883, Cline built a rock house and a post office on the north bank of the creek, became postmaster, and renamed the community after himself. In about a dozen years the settlement had moved across the creek, changed hands, and taken a new name.
Its place in the American story
Cline's story is the American frontier in miniature. It began with a stagecoach outpost and ended as a railroad community, and that arc played out in hundreds of places across the West.
The railroad's arrival mattered well beyond Uvalde County. Rails reshaped where people lived and traded. A move of a few hundred yards to be near the tracks could decide whether a community thrived or faded. The shift from Wallace on the south bank to Cline on the north bank is a small, vivid example of that force at work.
The soldiers at "The Spring" point to a harder national story as well: the military presence that came with American expansion into lands where Native peoples lived, and the conflicts that came with it.
If you visit
The marker notes that the original community lies about half a mile south of the sign, so take a moment to orient yourself. Picture Turkey Creek with Pingenot's stage stand and inn on the south bank and Cline's rock house and post office on the north.
The landscape here is classic southwest Texas brush country, open and wide, the kind of country where a stagecoach stop would have been a welcome sight. Standing here, it is easy to imagine how far apart settlements were before the rails arrived.
Cline makes a good stop on a drive through Uvalde County and the western edge of the Hill Country. It pairs well with other frontier and railroad sites in the region, and it rewards travelers who like to trace how the map of Texas was redrawn in the 1880s.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Celeste Pingenot
- · August Cline
Themes & tags
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