Sabinal

Sabinal, originally known as Hammer's Station, is on U.S. Highway 90 and the Southern Pacific Railroad, twenty miles northeast of Uvalde in east central Uvalde County. The first settler at the site was Thomas B. Hammer, who established a stage stop there on the east bank of the Sabinal River in 1854. Other early settlers were Louis Peter, Peter Rheiner (future father-in-law of Vice President John Nance Garner), John Kenedy, and George Johnson. A post office was opened at the stage stop on October 19, 1854, with Hammer as postmaster. A soldier by the name of Austerman, who arrived at Hammer's Station in the late 1850s en route from Del Rio to Castroville, recalled a community hungry for news from the outside world. He also remembered seeing long trains of freight wagons on the road by Hammer's Station carrying supplies to settlers and soldiers on the far western frontier.

In 1856 the Second United States Cavalry established Camp Sabinal on the riverbank opposite Hammer's Station, to protect people and commerce on the road from San Antonio to El Paso and to protect the settlers from hostile Indians and outlaws. Nevertheless, Thomas Hammer was killed by bandits in 1857. By the time of the Civil War Sabinal was on the mail route and wagon trail from San Antonio to Mexico. In 1874 pioneer merchant Louis M. Peters built a successful general store. Soon after the railroad arrived in Sabinal in 1881, Peters moved the store to a site east of the river that eventually became part of the center of town. With the coming of the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1881 the rest of the community was moved to its present site. Angora goats imported from Turkey were brought into the Sabinal area in 1881.

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Ruben E. Ochoa | © TSHA

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Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.

Belongs to

Sabinal is part of or belongs to the following places:

Currently Exists

Yes

Place type

Sabinal is classified as a Town

Associated Names

  • (Hammer's Station)
  • (Patterson)

Location

Latitude: 29.32132530
Longitude: -99.46953500

Has Post Office

Yes

Is Incorporated

Yes

Population Count, 2021 View more »

1,401