Pipe Creek, Texas, Bandera County. (original) (raw)

Little Rock Church in Pipe Creek
TE photo, August 2006

History in a Pecan Shell

Named after the local creek of the same name, Pipe Creek was settled around 1868 with Francis Marion Hodges noted as the first resident. Seventy families are said to have moved to the community in its first ten years. A post office was granted in 1873. By 1880 the population was near 100 and Pipe Creek was a stagestop between San Antonio and Bandera.

A public school was built near the cemetery in 1881 and the school also served as a church for several denominations. Pipe Creek's store had a telephone installed in 1908 and a second school opened in 1913. Both schools merged in 1924 when the population fell to just 25 people. When electrical service was introduced in the 1930s, the town's population incresed, reaching 150 by the beginning of WWII.

After the war, a new school was built in 1948, but two years later it merged with Bandera schools.

The population was 220 through the 50s and 60s, even as many subdivisions built around the town proper. By the 1970s, only 66 people were left - the same number that is used for the 2000 census.

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