Pioneer's Well
Post, Garza County, Texas
Marker Inscription
County's first hand-dug rock-walled well. Dug 1883 by Llano Ranch workmen. Well is 5 feet square, 40 feet deep and lined with sandstones placed without the use of mortar. Original wood curb was destroyed by fire, 1937. Present curb is replica. Well was used 45 years. 1968
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Dug in 1883 by Llano Ranch workmen, this was Garza County's first hand-dug, rock-walled well — five feet square and forty feet deep, lined with sandstone laid without mortar. Fire destroyed its original wooden curb in 1937, and the present curb is a replica. The well supplied water for some forty-five years.
Why it matters
A hand-dug well was a matter of survival on the arid West Texas plains, and this one records the sheer labor by which ranchers made the open range habitable.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Kate McCommis
Post, TX
This marker remembers Kate McCommis, who died in February 1884 on the very day she was born, attended only by her young cowboy father amid the hardships of frontier life. Recorded as a Texas historic landmark in 1968, her small grave stands as a witness to the isolation and peril of the open range. It speaks to the countless unrecorded losses that shadowed pioneer families.
Llano Ranch
Post, TX
Established in 1880 and spanning 192 sections, the Llano Ranch was known as the "Curry Comb" for its cattle brand. Its first shelter was a half-dugout roofed with buffalo hides, replaced in 1883 by a two-story frame house that became the center of local social life. A baby girl born here in 1884 marked the first recorded birth in Garza County, and her nearby grave the first recorded death.
Garza County
Post, TX
This West Texas county carries the name of the Garza family, among the Canary Islanders who helped settle San Antonio in 1731—the first organized civil colony in Spanish Texas. Long open cattle range after its own settlement, the county turned to farming after 1910 and welcomed textile mills in 1912, with the town of Post serving as its seat.
C. W. Post Home
Post, TX
Cereal-foods millionaire C. W. Post built this home in 1912 in the very town he founded, planting a colony on the West Texas plains that he stocked with settlers by selling land on generous terms and seeding new industries. True to his slogan "I Want Quality," he fitted the house with solid oak doors, redwood floors, and leather wallpaper. Post was as much a town-builder as a breakfast magnate, promoting agriculture and settlement across the region.