Portions of the Hays County Historical Commission Minutes
Uhland City Hall, February 28, 2008
There is nothing left these days to show of the fierce battle that took place on Plum Creek near Kyle along the El Camino Real de los Tejas. But residents of Uhland say arrowheads are plentiful in the area, so plentiful they are easily found lying on top of the ground. And when the wind blows through the old oak trees you can close your eyes and almost hear the horses snorting. The occasional car coming down the road sounds like hooves on gravel. They are the ghostly memories of the Battle at Plum Creek fought by Texans, Mexicans, and friendly Indians against the Comanche’s on August 11, 1840. When the Texans and their friends, outnumbered four to one, won a decisive victory against a formidable enemy who was returning after sacking the town of Linnville.
As if in celebration of the victory, 32 members and guests were present at 6:28 p.m. when Chairman Kate Johnson call the meeting to order. Uhland City Manager Diana Woods welcomed commission members and guests, saying that she was glad to have people present. She usually had “just the company of cows and goats”. Seems city hall was originally a school building, which opened in 1916 and going through some forgotten storage areas, she has found original schoolbooks complete with love notes. The old coal storage building still stands close by outside. The once thriving Uhland community was a big agricultural center for Hays and Caldwell Counties and the school was full of children. But all that is gone now, and people do surprise her when they come by.
Opelia Philo would like to go through the Uhland schoolbooks in search of photos of Hispanics who came to the area during 1910-15 to pick cotton and stayed. Although there were oral histories taken in San Marcos covering those years, photos were lost in subsequent floods of the San Marcos River. She has oral history from 3-4 families and wants to put it together with history of the smaller school started out further from Uhland for German families and was later used for Hispanic children.
Evidence of the old trail, El Camino Real, which became a narrow road from Mexico to Shreveport, LA is visible from the air, where swales can still be seen and on the ground, here at Plum Creek crossing in Uhland, where the winding trail was widened a tad and paved. photo by Linda Keese |
Respectfully submitted,
Linda Keese, Recording Secretary
Source - Hays County Historical Commission Minutes, Uhland City Hall, February 28, 2008, submitted by Linda Keese, Recording Secretary.
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