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Waring, Texas had its beginnings as a stagecoach stop on the road between San Antonio and Fredericksburg. Located on the south bank of the Guadalupe River, Waring was created February 23, 1888 and originally known as Waringford. The town was named for Mr. R. P. M. Waring, a native of Waringford, Ireland, who provided a right-of-way for the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway for its Kerrville line. This same year, 1888, the post office from Windsor, a community on the north side of the Guadalupe River, was moved across the river to Waringford. On February 10, 1901, the town's name was shortened to Waring. The town was laid out into 50 city blocks by E.M. Burr. Richard Hunnam became postmaster on Feb. 23, 1888. Mr. R.P.M. Waring donated a lot for a school site. The school was built by locally donated labor. The town prospered for a few years. There was a train connection to San Antonio which stopped twice daily. It provided the warehousing, shipping, and shopping service to a large farm trade area. August Offer, a business man from New Braunfels, moved to the area in the mid-1890s. He opened a store, a saloon, then a campground. He added a dance hall and a lumberyard. In 1908 Mr. Offer built a large two-story cement block building for his business. The upper floor was a large meeting room for clubs, lodges and several apartments. He built a two-story home for his family. He had a dam constructed on the river to power a grist mill and a cotton gin. In 1904 he installed an electric plant. In 1913 the railroad from San Antonio to Fredericksburg was completed, but it didn't pass through the town of Waring. This began the gradual decline of this thriving little community. When highways were built for the newest invention, the automobile, the little town joined the hundreds of small communities of Texas which became only an historic town. SOURCES: Eva Blaschke, comp, The Waring Story,
Commissioned by the Waring Thimble Club (MS, Barker Texas History Center,
University of Texas at Austin, 1976); |