In the second edition of "My Texas Alphabet", B is for Bandera.
Nowadays, Bandera is mostly known/advertised as "the cowboy capital of the world". Not many people have any idea about its origin and that some of the town's first inhabitants were 16 Polish families who came to Texas from Silesia.
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| Local cattle brands |
The
intended destination of those Silesians was originally the settlement
of Panna Maria, where they arrived in 1855. Since the land in that area
had already been taken, the immigrants tried to find land around
Castroville. It was Charles de Montel, who persuaded those
Silesian families to go to Bandera where they could find employment at
de Montel's (saw and shingle) mill.
Charles de Montel was born in Königsberg,
Prussia. He was a lawyer, soldier, engineer, and commander of Texas
Rangers company. The man supplied the Polish immigrants with ox-driven
carts so that they could relocate their belongings to the designated
place.
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| Frontier Times Museum, Bandera, TX |
In Bandera, the Polish men worked for Charles de Montel. They
also obtained town lots and land that they systematically cleared. The
women worked at the local gristmill, which belonged to the Mormons, and
helped with the farmland cultivation.
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| St. Stanislaus Church, Bandera, TX |
In
1858, the Poles constructed St. Stanislaus Church in Bandera (the
second oldest Polish church in America) - I have already written about
the church in one of the previous posts. At first, the church building
was a log structure. Years later, a rock church replaced the original
one. In 1874, the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception opened a Polish
school there.
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| The building of the Polish parochial school in Bandera |
We
have visited Bandera a few times - enjoyed watching a parade and
ProRodeo there. We also went to the Frontier Times Museum (among
others). People seemed nice and friendly there.
It could be also a good
place to settle (depending on what you look for).
Source:
"The Texians and the Texans. The Polish Texans" The University of Texas, Institute of Texan Cultures, 1972.
Our Facebook page posts:
St. Stanislaus Church - our photos
History notes:
More about Bandera here
More about Charles de Montel: here
In the previous edition of "My Texas Alphabet", B was for Beans
Enjoyed the history of Bandera! I have been there, back in 1998 - we stayed at the Dixie Dude Ranch, where my parents also went with their church youth group when they were dating back in 1954! We also went to the rodeo in 1998 (and there is a film clip I made of it posted at the Texas Archive of the Moving Image). Not my first rodeo, but it was for my two kids, who were neither born nor raised in Texas.
ReplyDeleteIt must have been a great visit! I need to check out your video from the rodeo :-).
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