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Seawillow ~ ca 1853
The remnants of this
community lie about seven miles southeast of Lockhart at the crossroads of
County Roads 205 and 197. Settlers began arriving in the area around 1853 and
early maps record Cibalo or Cibolo (buffalo) as the name of the community.
Francis Branyon owned and operated a general store there in the 1880s.
L. Berry
Wells migrated to the Cibolo area in 1880. Mr. Wells met and married a young
Lockhart school teacher, Seawillow Pipkin, in 1882 or 1883. Miss Pipkin’s name
was derived from the location of her birth near Beaumont, under a strong willow
tree during a flood. The newly married couple settled in Cibolo where Mr. Wells
established a post office, most likely in the Branyon store. When he made
application for the post office the name Cibolo was rejected by the Federal
Postal Authority because there was already a Cibolo in Guadalupe County. Mr.
Wells had put Seawillow's name on the list for consideration, it was accepted
and Seawillow became the new name in 1899. Unfortunately, Mr. Well's tenure as
postmaster was short-lived because he died in 1900. The post office closed in
1903.
In the late 1800s a school named Lone Jane was established, followed by
another simply called Seawillow School in 1911. This two-story building offered
high school classes upstairs and a part of the duties of the upperclass students
was to help teach the primary pupils. After 1922, the school was consolidated
with the Glendale common school district and eventually became part of the
Lockhart school district.
Cotton and grain were the main products that were
raised by farmers in the area and that helped maintain the rural community.
However, oil discovery brought a boom to Seawillow in the 1930s. By the 1940s
though, the Branyon oilfield dwindled and the population began moving to other
areas. The Branyon store closed and the small town began to disappear in the
1940s. Today the community is primarily involved with ranching and commercial
chicken production.
Sources –
1. Caldwell County Kin: The First 150 Years published by the Genealogical and
Historical Society of Caldwell County. November 2000, C-39
2. Historical Caldwell County: where roots intertwine, originally published by
The Mark Withers Trail Drive Museum, Caldwell County, Texas, 1984, pages 240-241
3. Plum Creek Almanac Volume 6 No. 1, Spring 1988, Volume 6 No. 2 Fall 1988, and
Volume 17 No. 1, Spring 1999
4. Smyrl, Vivian Elizabeth, “SEAWILLOW, TX”, Handbook of Texas Online,
http://www.tshaonline.org
The Plum Creek Almanac is a project of
The Genealogical and Historical Society of Caldwell County.
 The Genealogical and Historical Society
of Caldwell County Copyright
© 1963
Updated
10/15/2019
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