Cross
McMullen County, McMullen County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This community (earlier known as Nopal, San Miguel, Franklin) is one of area's first permanent settlements. Named for Samuel C. Cross, who opened grocery store, became first postmaster, 1924. Post office closed, 1934. Gas well completed nearby, 1953, was largest in state at that time. Ranching also is important to economy. (1967)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The community of Cross in McMullen County grew from one of the area's earliest permanent settlements, known over the years as Nopal, San Miguel, and Franklin before taking the name of Samuel C. Cross, who opened its store and became postmaster in 1924. The post office closed a decade later, but ranching sustained the area, and in 1953 a nearby gas well—then the largest in the state—tied this quiet ranch country to the Texas energy boom.
Why it matters
Cross traces the arc of South Texas settlement from Spanish-named outposts to a ranching and oil-and-gas economy.
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Related people
- · Samuel C. Cross
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Franklin Ranch
Tilden, TX
Ralph "Rafe" Franklin came to McMullen County as a boy in the early 1860s and around 1870 began building a ranch that grew to some 40,000 acres, among the largest in the region. He raised a large family at the San Miguel Creek headquarters, briefly ran sheep and goats, then committed to cattle—introducing one of the area's first black Angus herds in 1902. The old San Antonio–Laredo Stage Road crossed the property, a route that had carried Confederate cotton toward Mexico during the Civil War.
Townsite of Wentz
McMullen County, TX
Founded in 1914 as the market center for a 44,000-acre farm development promoted for absentee Kansas landlords, the town of Wentz briefly boomed to about 200 residents, complete with a hired limousine to fetch mail from the train at Three Rivers. A severe drought in 1917 drove most citizens away, the post office closed in 1921, and the last school shut in 1948.
Site of Old Crowther Ranch
McMullen County, TX
Platted across 1,600 acres by 1902 and named for landowner Samuel Crowther, this townsite was heavily promoted as a future oil-and-farming center despite early oil discoveries nearby. The boosterism never paid off, and by 1921 the place was a ghost town. It later passed through further owners in the 1930s.
Calliham
Calliham, TX
This McMullen County community started as Guffeyola, a 1918 post office in H. H. McGuffey's store, then exploded after oil and gas strikes between 1917 and 1922 — first a tent city, then a town of shotgun houses. It piped the first natural gas to San Antonio and was renamed in 1923 to honor rancher and townsite owner J. T. Calliham. It still produces oil and ships fine rocks and petrified wood.