Kicaster Community
La Vernia, Wilson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The families of Isaac Crow, R. T. Spivey, Dr. W. R. Callaway, T. P. Camp, J. E. Watkins, Isom Ferguson, L. B. Pittman, and others began a farming settlement here in the 1860s. John James donated land for a schoolhouse (1872), where church services were also held. A. C. and Mary Anderson in 1887 gave more land for public use. Easterling post office, opened in 1887, was soon renamed Kicaster for nearby creek, but closed in 1906. The school was phased out in 1940, and the churches moved away. Kicaster Cemetery, in use since the 1870s, now marks the site of the community. (1975)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the 1860s a cluster of farming families settled this stretch of Wilson County, and by 1872 John James had donated land for a schoolhouse that also hosted church services. The Easterling post office opened in 1887 and was soon renamed Kicaster for a nearby creek, but it closed in 1906, the school was phased out by 1940, and the churches drifted away. Today only Kicaster Cemetery, in use since the 1870s, marks where the community once stood.
Why it matters
Kicaster is a classic example of the small Texas farm settlements that rose and vanished with the fortunes of the post office and the railroad, leaving a cemetery as their last address.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
When families began farming this part of Wilson County in the 1860s, Texas was coming through one of the hardest decades in its history. The Civil War and Reconstruction had upended the economy and politics of the state. Still, the rolling country southeast of San Antonio held good land, and settlers kept arriving to claim it.
Rural Texas in those years was organized around a few simple institutions. A farm family might live miles from a real town. What turned scattered homesteads into a community was a shared schoolhouse, a place to worship and, eventually, a post office. Those three things gave a place its name and its identity.
The same forces that built such communities could also take them apart. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, better roads, rural mail delivery and consolidated schools pulled many small Texas settlements into larger towns. Kicaster's story follows that arc closely.
People & events
The marker names the founding families: Crow, Spivey, Callaway, Camp, Watkins, Ferguson, Pittman "and others." It's a reminder that communities like this were built by neighbors, not by a single founder. They cleared fields, raised houses and began to think of this spot as home.
In 1872 John James gave land for a schoolhouse, and that building soon did double duty. Children learned their lessons there during the week, and the community gathered there for church services. In 1887 A. C. and Mary Anderson gave more land for public use, a sign that the settlement was still growing.
The same year a post office opened under the name Easterling. It was soon renamed Kicaster after a nearby creek, and the name stuck to the whole community. The post office closed in 1906. The school hung on until 1940, and the congregations eventually moved elsewhere. The one thing that stayed was the cemetery, in use since the 1870s, where the founding families still rest.
Its place in the American story
Kicaster is one of thousands of American communities that were real, named places for a generation or two and then quietly disappeared. Across the rural South and West, a post office, a school and a church were often all it took to put a settlement on the map. Losing them could take it off again.
That kind of fading wasn't failure. It came from the modernization of rural America. Mail delivered to the farmhouse door, roads to bigger towns and the move toward larger consolidated schools all made rural life easier while emptying the old crossroads. Kicaster's timeline, from a post office in the 1880s, closed in the 1900s, to a school ending in 1940, follows that national trend closely.
Places like this are also part of the story of how ordinary Americans shaped the country. The marker's list of family names is the kind of record that rarely makes the history books, but it's how the land was actually settled.
If you visit
The cemetery is the heart of what's left of Kicaster, so come prepared for a quiet, reflective stop rather than a townsite. Walk respectfully among the graves and look for surnames that match the families on the marker. Seeing those names carved in stone connects the marker's list to real people.
Look at the land around you, too. The same countryside that drew farmers in the 1860s is still here, and you can picture where a schoolhouse, a church gathering or a tiny post office might once have stood.
Kicaster is an easy detour on a drive through the farm country southeast of San Antonio. It pairs well with other small-town and cemetery markers in Wilson County, and together they show the everyday history of rural Texas.
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
- Green Acres Golf and Games6.9 mi away
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Related people
- · John James
Themes & tags
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