Editing Uvalde County, Texas (section)

==History==
===Native Americans===
[[Artifact (archaeology)|Artifacts]] establish human habitation dating back to 7000 B.C. Evidence of a permanent [[Native Americans in the United States|Indian]] [[village]] on the [[Leona River]] at a place south of the [[Fort Inge]] site is indicated in the written accounts of [[Fernando del Bosque]]'s exploration in 1675. [[Comanche]], [[Tonkawa]], [[Seminole]] and [[Lipan Apache people|Lipan Apache]] continued hunting and raiding settlers into the 19th century.<ref name="Uvalde County">{{Handbook of Texas|name=Uvalde County |id=hcu03 |author=Ochoa, Ruben E |retrieved=June 4, 2010 }} Texas State Historical Association</ref>

===Early explorations===
On January 9, 1790, [[Juan de Ugalde]], governor of Coahuila and commandant of the [[Provincias Internas]], led 600 men to a decisive victory over the Apaches near the site of modern Utopia<ref name="Utopia, Texas">{{cite web | title=Utopia, Texas | publisher=Texas Escapes – Blueprints For Travel, LLC. | url=http://www.texasescapes.com/TexasHillCountryTowns/Utopia-Texas.htm | access-date=April 30, 2010}} Texas Escapes – Blueprints For Travel, LLC.</ref> at a place known then as Arroyo de la Soledad. In honor of his victory, the [[canyon]] area was thereafter called Cañon de Ugalde. French [[botanist]] [[Jean-Louis Berlandier]] visited the area in the late 1820s. [[James Bowie]] guided a group of silver [[Prospecting|prospectors]] into the area of north central Uvalde County in the 1830s. A trail used by [[Adrian Woll|General Adrián Woll's]] [[Mexican Army]] on its way to attack [[San Antonio, Texas|San Antonio]] in 1842 crossed the territory of Uvalde County and became the main highway to San Antonio.

===Early settlements===
[[Fort Inge]] was established in 1849 to repress Indian depredations on the international border with [[Mexico]], and was served by the Overland Southern Mail.

One of the first settlers to the environs was William Washington Arnett, who arrived in the winter of 1852. The Canyon de Ugalde Land Company, formed by land [[speculator]]s in San Antonio in 1837, began purchasing [[headright]] grants in Uvalde County in the late 1830s. [[Reading Wood Black]],<ref name="A Guide to Reading Wood Black Paper">{{Cite web |title = A Guide to Reading Wood Black Papers | publisher=Texas Archival Resources Online | url=http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utcah/01073/cah-01073.html | access-date=April 30, 2010}}</ref> who with a partner, Nathan L. Stratton, purchased an undivided [[League (unit)|league]] and labor on the Leona River in 1853 at the future site of [[Uvalde, Texas|Uvalde]]. May 2, 1855, Black hired San Antonio lithographer [[Wilhelm Thielepape|Wilhelm Carl August Thielepape]],<ref name="Wilhelm Carl August Thielepape">{{Handbook of Texas | name=Wilhelm Carl August Thielepape | id=fth41| author=Albrecht, Theodore| retrieved=June 4, 2010}} Texas State Historical Association</ref> and laid out Encina, the town later known as Uvalde.<ref>{{cite web | title=Uvalde, Texas | publisher=Texas Escapes – Blueprints For Travel, LLC. | url=http://www.texasescapes.com/TexasHillCountryTowns/UvaldeTexas/UvaldeTx.htm | access-date=April 30, 2010}} Texas Escapes – Blueprints For Travel, LLC.</ref><ref name="History of Uvalde, Texas">{{Cite web |title = History of Uvalde, Texas | publisher=City of Uvalde, TX| url=http://uvaldetx.com/content/history | access-date=April 30, 2010}} City of Uvalde</ref> Waresville settlement by Capt. William Ware in the upper Sabinal Canyon and Patterson Settlement by George W. Patterson, John Leakey, and A. B. Dillard on the [[Sabinal River]] coincided with Reading Black's development of the Leona River at Encina.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

===County established and growth===
[[File:Uvalde County marker IMG 1878.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Uvalde County marker]]
[[File:Hill Country scene in Uvalde County, TX IMG 1875.JPG|200px|right|thumb|A scene of the [[Texas Hill Country]] in northern Uvalde County]]
[[File:TX Hwy 55 in Uvalde County IMG 1319.JPG|200px|right|thumb|[[Texas State Highway 55]] as it meanders through scenic northwestern Uvalde County near the [[Nueces River]]]]
In November 1855, Reading Wood Black successfully lobbied the [[Texas Legislature]] to organize Uvalde County.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Association |first=Texas State Historical |title=Black, Reading Wood |url=https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/black-reading-wood#:~:text=successfully%20lobbied%20the%20state%20legislature%20to%20organize%20Uvalde%20County |access-date=2025-01-08 |website=Texas State Historical Association |language=en}}</ref> On May 12, the county was formally organized.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}} On June 14, Encina was named county seat.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}} The second floor of the courthouse was made into a school, and six school districts were organized for the county in 1858. The San Antonio-El Paso Mail route was extended along the county's main road with a stop at Fort Inge in 1857.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

Conflict between [[Mexican people|Mexicans]] and [[Anglo]]s during and after the Mexican War continued in Uvalde County, with the reported lynching of eleven Mexicans near the [[Nueces River]] in 1855.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Association |first=Texas State Historical |title=Uvalde County |url=https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/uvalde-county#:~:text=County,%20with%20the-,reported%20lynching,-of%20eleven%20Mexicans |access-date=2025-01-08 |website=Texas State Historical Association |language=en}}</ref> Laws passed in 1857 prohibited Mexicans from traveling through the county.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Digital History |url=https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=556#:~:text=county,%20Texas,%20in-,September,%201857,-,%20passed%20several%20resolutions |access-date=2025-01-08 |website=www.digitalhistory.uh.edu}}</ref>

Residents of Uvalde County voted 76–16 against [[Texas in the American Civil War|secession]] from the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]]. The abandonment of Fort Inge immediately after secession was followed by renewed Indian attacks. Many men in Uvalde County fought for the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]], while some Unionists fled to Mexico to avoid [[persecution]].<ref name="Uvalde Co Military">{{cite web|title=Uvalde Co Military|url=http://www.txgenweb2.org/txuvalde/military.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081123092138/http://www.txgenweb2.org/txuvalde/military.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 23, 2008|publisher=Uvalde Co TxGenWeb Project|access-date=June 4, 2010}}</ref>

Uvalde County endured three decades of unrelenting lawlessness after the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]. Violence, lawlessness and Confederate-Union conflicts among citizens were so pervasive that armed guards were employed to assist the county tax assessor and collector, and the county had no [[sheriff]] for nearly two years. The years immediately following the Civil War were marked by conflicts between Confederates and Unionists returning to live in Uvalde County. Smugglers, [[cattle rustler]]s and [[horse rustler]]s, and numerous other desperadoes saturated the area, including notorious cattle rustler, [[King Fisher|J. King Fisher]] who was appointed Uvalde sheriff in 1881.<ref name="J King Fisher">{{Handbook of Texas | name=J King Fisher | id=ffi20| author=Adams, Paul | retrieved=4 June 2010}} Texas State Historical Association</ref> Willis Newton of The [[Newton Gang]] robbed his first train near Uvalde. Jess and Joe Newton retired to Uvalde.<ref name="The Newton Boys">{{Handbook of Texas | name=The Newton Boys | id=jen01| author=Holm, Patricia | retrieved=June 4, 2010}} Texas State Historical Association</ref>

The Uvalde ''Umpire'' began publication in 1878 and the ''Hesparian'' in 1879.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

The Galveston, Harrisburg, and San Antonio Railway was built through the county, passing through Sabinal and Uvalde City, in 1881.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

William M. Landrum introduced [[Angora goat]]s to the area in the 1880s. By the turn of the century, goats outnumbered cattle.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Association |first=Texas State Historical |title=Goat Ranching |url=https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/goat-ranching#:~:text=This%20trend%20was%20accentuated%20in%201884%20when%20William%20M.%20Landrum,%20a%20leading%20Angora%20raiser%20in%20California,%20moved%20his%20herd%20of%20thoroughbred%20goats%20to%20Uvalde%20County. |access-date=2025-01-08 |website=Texas State Historical Association |language=en}}</ref>

Old West lawman [[Pat Garrett]] lived in the county from 1891 to 1900.<ref name="Pat Garrett Historical Marker">{{Cite web | title=Pat Garrett Historical Marker | publisher=Texas Historical Markers | url=http://www.9key.com/markers/marker_detail.asp?atlas_number=5463003953 | access-date=April 30, 2010 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120314204616/http://www.9key.com/markers/marker_detail.asp?atlas_number=5463003953 | archive-date=March 14, 2012 }}</ref>

By 1905 the Southern Pacific Railroad had established railheads in Uvalde, Knippa, and Sabinal.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Association |first=Texas State Historical |title=Uvalde County |url=https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/uvalde-county#:~:text=By%201905%20the%20Southern%20Pacific%20had%20established%20railheads%20in%20Uvalde,%20Knippa,%20and%20Sabinal |access-date=2025-01-08 |website=Texas State Historical Association |language=en}}</ref>

The local bee industry developed a product that received first place in the 1900 [[Paris]] World's Fair.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Welcome to the City of Uvalde |url=https://www.uvaldetx.gov/main_street/uvalde_honey_festival.php#:~:text=Legend%20has%20it,%20that%20during%20the%201905%20World%E2%80%99s%20Fair,%20Uvalde%20was%20honored%20as%20the%20Honey%20Capital%20of%20the%20World. |access-date=2025-01-08 |website=www.uvaldetx.gov |language=en}}</ref>

[[Garner State Park]] built by the [[Civilian Conservation Corps]] and opened in 1941. [[Garner Field|Garner Army Air Field]] the same year.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Association |first=Texas State Historical |title=Garner Army Air Field |url=https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/garner-army-air-field |access-date=2025-01-08 |website=Texas State Historical Association |language=en}}</ref>

The [[National Fish Hatchery System|National Fish Hatchery]], completed in 1937, produced a million [[catfish]], [[largemouth bass]] and [[Centrarchidae|sunfish]] in the 1970s.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

Approximately [[United States dollar|$]]45 million was generated by farming in Uvalde County in 1974.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

In January 1989 Uvalde County withdrew from the [[Edwards Aquifer|Edwards Underground Water District]].{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

In 1990 Uvalde County had a population of 23,340, with 60% identified as Hispanic.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Association |first=Texas State Historical |title=Uvalde County |url=https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/uvalde-county#:~:text=In%201990%20Uvalde%20County%20had%20a%20population%20of%2023,340,%20with%2060%20percent%20identified%20as%20Hispanic. |access-date=2025-01-08 |website=Texas State Historical Association |language=en}}</ref>

===Desegregation===
From the [[Mexican Revolution]] in 1910, immigrant labor force cleared large tracts of land and dug ditches as irrigation spread throughout the county. The Uvalde and Northern Railway to Camp Wood, the Asphalt Beltway Railway in 1921, and the expansion of the asphalt mines in far southwestern Uvalde County at Blewett and Dabney were completed with the help of Mexican labor. By 1960 Mexican Americans made up one half of Uvalde County's 16,015 population. Seasonal migrant workers continued to move to Uvalde and Sabinal during the 1960s.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ochoa |first=Ruben E. |date=September 29, 2020 |title=Uvalde County |url=https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/uvalde-county |access-date=2025-03-24 |website=Texas State Historical Association |language=en}}</ref>

The [[Alien land laws#Texas|Alien Land Laws of 1891, 1892 and 1921]] prohibited ownership of Texas land by non-citizen residents.<ref name="Alien Land Law">{{Handbook of Texas | name=Alien Land Law | id=mla01| author= | retrieved=4 June 2010}} Texas State Historical Association</ref> The laws were repealed in 1965 by the Fifty-ninth Texas Legislature.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}} These and other discriminatory deed restrictions had limited [[Tejano]]s in the purchase of town lots in the county.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

Efforts to gain civil rights for Hispanics in Uvalde County began with the establishment of the Tomas Valle Post of the American Legion.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}} County churches maintained segregated places of worship until an integrated Catholic church emerged in Uvalde in 1965.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

The [[Mexican American Youth Organization]] formed in Uvalde City in 1968 and eventually led to a 6-week walkout by more than 600 Mexican-American students an on April 14, 1970.<ref name="No Apologies, No Regrets">{{cite journal|last=Santos|first=Alfredo Rodriguez|title=No Apologies, No Regrets|journal=La Voz de Austin |date=July–August 2009|pages=10|url=http://www.lavoznewspapers.com/La_Voz_de_Austin_July_August_2009_inter.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.lavoznewspapers.com/La_Voz_de_Austin_July_August_2009_inter.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Mexican American Youth Organization">{{Handbook of Texas | name="Mexican American Youth Organization | id=wem01| author=Acosta, Teresa Palomo | retrieved=June 4, 2010}} Texas State Historical Association</ref> The [[Texas Rangers Division|Texas Rangers]] and the [[Texas Department of Public Safety]] responded to requests by the school board to help control the volatile situation. [[Walter Mondale|Senator Walter F. Mondale]], chairman of the [[United States Senate]] Committee on Equal Educational Opportunity, went to Uvalde on July 30, 1970, and criticized city officials in an interview published in the Uvalde Leader News.
<ref name="About Us">{{cite web|title=About Us |url=http://www.uvaldecounty.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=30&Itemid=55|publisher=Uvalde Co, Tx|access-date=June 4, 2010}}</ref>

A 1970 class action lawsuit was filed by Genoveva Morales on behalf of her children against the [[Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District]].<ref name="Morales v Shannon">{{cite web|title=Morales v Shannon |url=http://maldef.org/education/litigation/morales_v_shannon/|publisher=MALDEF|access-date=June 4, 2010}}</ref>

In 1975, the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit]] found that Uvalde C.I.S.D. in Texas had failed to desegregate its school system in violation of the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution]] and [[Civil Rights Act of 1964|Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964]]. In 1976, the Court ordered Uvalde C.I.S.D. to comply. In 2007, Uvalde C.I.S.D. sought to dismiss the desegregation order. The [[Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund]] (MALDEF) opposed. On September 15, 2008, a settlement was reached.<ref name="Plaintiffs' Response in Opposition to Defendants' Motion to Dismiss: Morales v Shannon">{{cite web|title=Plaintiffs' Response in Opposition to Defendants' Motion to Dismiss: Morales v Shannon|url=http://maldef.org/education/litigation/6.1.6_PsResponseinOppositiontoDsMotionDismiss.pdf|publisher=MALDEF|access-date=4 June 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101126194029/http://maldef.org/education/litigation/6.1.6_PsResponseinOppositiontoDsMotionDismiss.pdf|archive-date=November 26, 2010}}</ref><ref name="Consent Order and Settlement Agreement: Morales v Shannon">{{cite web|title=Consent Order and Settlement Agreement: Morales v Shannon|url=http://maldef.org/education/litigation/6.1.6_SIGNEDConsentOrderSettlementAgreement.pdf|publisher=MALDEF|access-date=June 4, 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101126194008/http://maldef.org/education/litigation/6.1.6_SIGNEDConsentOrderSettlementAgreement.pdf|archive-date=November 26, 2010}}</ref><ref name="MALDEF Settles Historic School Desegregation Case">{{cite news|last=Rodriguez|first=Laura|title=MALDEF Settles Historic School Desegregation Case|url=http://maldef.org/news/releases/texas_deseg_091608/|newspaper=MALDEF|date=September 16, 2008}}</ref>

===2017 church bus crash===
On March 29, 2017, thirteen senior citizens from the First [[Southern Baptist|Baptist]] Church of [[New Braunfels, Texas|New Braunfels]] in [[Comal County, Texas|Comal County]] who had completed a retreat at Alto Frio Baptist Encampment near [[Leakey, Texas|Leakey]] in [[Real County, Texas|Real County]] were killed when Jack D. Young, the 20-year-old driver of a pickup, crashed into the church minivan on [[U.S. Highway 83]] inside Uvalde County near [[Garner State Park]]. One person survived the crash in critical condition. The collision was one of the deadliest in memory in Uvalde County.<ref>"Speed a factor in deaths: It's not known if people on bus were using seat belts", ''[[San Antonio Express-News]]'', March 31, 2017, pp. 1, A10.</ref>

Young, who worked on his father's ranch and at a golf course and had no criminal record, told a witness, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," and said that he had been on his [[cell phone]] at the time of the crash. Jody Kuchler, a welder from Leakey who saw the accident, said that the driver of the church vehicle moved over to try to avoid Young's incoming pickup but was blocked by the presence of a guard rail.<ref>Zeke McCormack, "Death Truck: Witness: Pickup driver said he was on phone", ''San Antonio Express-News'', April 1, 2017, pp. 1, A8.</ref>

===2022 school shooting===
{{Further|Robb Elementary School shooting}} 
On May 24, 2022, 19 children and two teachers were killed in a [[school shooting]] in Uvalde, Texas.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/texas-elementary-school-reports-active-shooter-campus/story?id=84940951 |title=At least 19 children, 2 adults dead after shooting at Texas elementary school |last1=Osborne |first1=Mark |last2=Deliso |first2=Meredith |date=May 24, 2022 |website=ABC News |access-date=May 24, 2022 |language=en |archive-date=May 24, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220524181927/https://abcnews.go.com/US/texas-elementary-school-reports-active-shooter-campus/story?id=84940951 |url-status=live }}</ref> The shooter, Salvador Rolando Ramos, had shot his grandmother before driving to Robb Elementary School, where he entered the building without opposition. Local officers, believing the shooter to be barricaded safely inside the school, stood outside waiting for further instruction. Video shows local officers forcing parents behind police tape, pinning them down and threatening to [[Taser|tase]] them, preventing them from trying to save their children's lives.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2022-05-27 |title=On-scene commander decided not to try to breach classrooms in Texas elementary school shooting, official says |url=https://www.ocregister.com/2022/05/27/on-scene-commander-decided-not-to-try-to-breach-classrooms-in-elementary-school-shooting-official-says/ |access-date=2024-04-27 |work=Orange County Register |publisher=CNN Wire Service |language=en-US}}</ref> After an hour, the killer was shot by [[BORTAC]] agents.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/25/us/uvalde-texas-elementary-school-shooting-wednesday/index.html |title=Uvalde school shooter was in school for up to an hour before law enforcement broke into room where he was barricaded and killed him |publisher=CNN |last1=Chapman |first1=Isabelle |last2=Medina |first2=Daniel A. |last3=Chavez |first3=Nicole |last4=Andone |first4=Dakin |last5=Wolfe |first5=Elizabeth |date=May 25, 2022 |accessdate=May 25, 2022 |archive-date=May 25, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220525092338/https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/25/us/uvalde-texas-elementary-school-shooting-wednesday/index.html |url-status=live}}</ref>