CIBOLO, TEXAS (Guadalupe County). Cibolo is on Farm Road 78 and Cibolo Creek, sixteen miles west of Seguin in western Guadalupe County. Cíbolo is Spanish for "buffalo." The banks of Cibolo Creek are quite steep, and along its entire course, which is the boundary between Guadalupe and Bexar counties, there are few places where pioneers could find a safe crossing before the development of bridges. It is said that Indians stampeded buffalo over the banks to disable them so they could be slaughtered. Jacob Schlather bought land in the area in 1867, and his son George built a store to supply neighboring settlers, who were mostly German. The store was sold to Charles Fromme in 1882, and the settlement became known as Fromme's Store. When the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway built through the area in 1877 the station was called Cibolo Valley. A post office called Cibolo opened in 1883. By 1890 the community had a church, a cotton gin, a general store, and 100 residents.
The Cibolo Valley school had one teacher and thirty-one students in 1904. O. Henry's (see PORTER, WILLIAM SYDNEY) story "The Smiling Valley of the Cibolo" was supposedly inspired by a visit to the area. In 1914 a second frame school building was constructed to accommodate the growing number of students. In 1916 the voters approved a bond for a new high school. The trustees, F. J. Werner, George Schlather, and Alfred Sahm, contracted for a two-story brick structure. The first graduates of Cibolo High School received their diplomas in 1920. The census of 1940 recorded a post office, a bank, nine businesses, and a population of 250. When the town was incorporated in 1968 the population was 398. The major economic influences on Cibolo have been Randolph Air Force Baseqv and the expansion of San Antonio. In the 1980s Cibolo grew dramatically along Interstate Highway 35, and many housing developments were planned. The town reported 657 residents in 1988, 1,757 in 1990, and 3,035 in 2000.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Willie Mae Weinert, An Authentic History of Guadalupe County (Seguin, Texas: Seguin Enterprise, 1951; rpt. 1976).
Willie Mae Weinert
