Reading Wood Black
Uvalde, Uvalde County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(Sept. 23, 1830 - Oct. 3, 1867) A native of New Jersey, Reading Wood Black founded the town of Encino (later renamed Uvalde) in 1855. The following year he was instrumental in the formation of Uvalde County. An active civic leader and supporter of education, Black served as county judge, county commissioner, and state representative. As a result of his opposition to secession, he was led to live in Mexico during the Civil War. Black was killed in Uvalde at the age of 37. Recorded - 1983.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
A New Jersey native, Reading Wood Black founded the town of Encino — soon renamed Uvalde — in 1855 and helped organize Uvalde County the next year. A civic leader and champion of education, he served as county judge, commissioner, and state representative. His outspoken opposition to secession drove him into exile in Mexico during the Civil War, and he was killed in Uvalde in 1867 at just thirty-seven.
Why it matters
Black's life joins frontier town-building to the divided loyalties of Civil War Texas, where a Unionist founder paid dearly for his convictions.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the mid-1850s, the country west of San Antonio was one of the most exposed stretches of the Texas frontier. Military posts guarded the roads, and settlers who chose to build here faced raids, isolation, and hard, dry land. Yet the region also sat along important routes west, and ambitious founders saw promise in it.
The years that followed brought deep division. When Texas voted to secede in 1861, a significant minority of Texans opposed the decision. Unionists in the state faced suspicion, threats, and sometimes violence. Some kept quiet, some were imprisoned or killed, and some left the state entirely. Mexico, just to the south, became a refuge for many.
The war's end did not bring an easy peace. Reconstruction-era Texas remained tense and often violent, with old loyalties and grudges still raw. It was in that unsettled time, in 1867, that Reading Wood Black's life ended.
People & events
Reading Wood Black came from New Jersey to the Texas frontier and, in 1855, founded a town called Encino. It would soon take the name Uvalde, which it still carries. The following year he helped bring Uvalde County into being, turning a frontier settlement into the seat of a new local government.
Black was more than a founder. He was an active civic leader and a supporter of education, and he held office as county judge, county commissioner, and state representative. In a young frontier community, men like Black shaped nearly every public institution, from the courthouse to the schoolhouse.
Then came secession. Black opposed it, and his stand put him at odds with the state's new Confederate government. As a result he was forced to live in Mexico during the Civil War. He returned to Uvalde afterward, but his story ended violently: he was killed in the town he founded, at just thirty-seven years old.
Its place in the American story
Reading Wood Black's life ties together two great themes of nineteenth-century America. The first is the building of new communities on the frontier, where one determined person could found a town and help create a county. The second is the painful division of the Civil War, which reached into even the remotest settlements.
Texas is often remembered simply as a Confederate state, but its story was more complicated. Many Texans, especially in certain regions and immigrant communities, opposed secession. Their experience of exile, persecution, and violence is an important and often overlooked part of the war's history.
Black's journey from founder to exile and back again, followed by his early death, shows how high the personal cost of conviction could be. His story is a reminder that the war did not simply divide North and South; it divided neighbors, towns, and families.
If you visit
Uvalde sits in the South Texas brush country, a crossroads town with a strong sense of its frontier heritage. Standing at the marker, you can reflect on the fact that the whole community traces back to one man's decision to found a town here in 1855.
Look around and consider how different the place must have felt then, an exposed outpost on the edge of settlement. The contrast between that raw beginning and the established town around you is part of what makes this marker rewarding.
Uvalde is a natural stop on a road trip through South Texas or on the way toward the Hill Country and the border region. Take time to explore the town's other historic sites and imagine the founder who believed in this place, and who paid a heavy price for standing by his convictions.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Reading Wood Black
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Pat Garrett
Uvalde, TX
Patrick F. Garrett, the lawman forever linked to the 1881 killing of the outlaw Billy the Kid, made his home on this site during his years in Uvalde. He had come from Alabama to Texas in 1869 and worked as farmer, cowboy, and buffalo hunter before serving as a sheriff and trying his hand at ranching, owning property here from 1891 to 1900. In 1908 he was killed in New Mexico following a dispute over land, an ending that many suspected was more ambush than fair fight.
King Fisher
Uvalde, TX
King Fisher rose from teenage ranch hand to the undisputed power over a vast stretch of Southwest Texas known as "King Fisher's Territory," centered on Eagle Pass. Hired to guard herds from cross-border raiders, he imposed a rough order — his henchmen rustled cattle and terrorized some settlers while protecting others — and a roadside sign reputedly warned travelers to "take the other" road. Indicted many times but never convicted, he reformed after a Texas Ranger arrest in 1876 and was serving as acting Uvalde County sheriff when he and gunman Ben Thompson were killed from ambush in a San Antonio theater in 1884.
Uvalde Methodist Church
Uvalde, TX
Organized in 1856 by the Rev. Thomas Myers just as the town of Uvalde was taking shape, this congregation marked the western frontier of Methodist ministry in Texas. Early members worshipped in the courthouse, schoolhouse, and open park until a first sanctuary rose about 1859–60 on land deeded by town founder Reading Black, followed by others in 1882 and the present 1907–08 building. The church twice hosted the West Texas Annual Conference, in 1909 and 1916.
Early Texas Wagon Yards
Uvalde, TX
Before automobiles, the wagon yard was the crossroads of rural Texas life — part hotel, part social center, where drivers could shelter their teams, cook a meal, and swap news and gossip. An open area flanked by sheds, stalls, and feed rooms, a yard might fill a city block and charge a quarter to a dollar a day, and families sometimes lingered for weeks awaiting kin or goods arriving by train or stage. Merchants such as the F.A. Piper Company, whose yard stood a block west of this spot, often built and ran these yards free of charge to draw customers.