Aransas Creek Settlers

The town at the museum corner was built on names that kept changing. A post office called River Side opened briefly in 1860, then Lattington served the creek until 1866. Skidmore got its own post office in 1887, and in 1893 the town moved to its present site south of Aransas Creek. Fires in 1913, 1918 and 1929 hit a place that, by 1920, had eight stores, three garages, three saloons, a bakery and two pharmacies. The settlers on the plaque came first, to ranch and haul freight; the town came later, with the railroad.

What the plaque says

Aransas Creek Settlers Earliest known residents were Karankawa Indians who named creek. On this stream was one of the most famous ranches in early Texas, occupied in 1805 by Don Martin de Leon, who in 1824 founded Victoria. In 1830's Irish colonists came by way of Copano Bay, settling downcreek. Anglo-Americans from older settlements, came by road and trail, stopping mainly upcreek. Stockraising, trucking and freighting provided livelihoods in the rich, new prairie land. In 1850 Patrick Fadden sold to Ft. Merrill corn and vegetables from 1835 land grant of his uncle, Father John Thomas Malloy. Fadden and W.R. Hayes freighted supplies to settlers in 1860's. Hays had early post office in his home, 1870; was county judge 1876-92. John Wilson, an 1850's upcreek settler, brought first Durham cattle to country; built one of first wooden fences, enclosing 600 acres of homesite with rough heart pine plank. On creek's north bank stood ranch of Frank O. Skidmore, founder of Skidmore, who gained fame for building first barbed wire fence and windmill in county. He promoted breeding of registered Herefords and in 1886 gave much of right-of-way to the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad. (1967)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lake Corpus Christi State Park — 17 mi
  A lake park in the South Texas brush country above Mathis, on a reservoir of the Nueces, with a Civilian Conservation Corps refectory and more than 200 bird species.
• Lipantitlán State Historic Site — 21 mi
  Five undeveloped acres on the Nueces named for the Lipan Apaches who camped here, where Mexico built an earth-and-rail fort that Texans took early in the Revolution.

More markers nearby

• Papalote Creek — 8.2 mi
• Lott Canada School — 11 mi
• Beeville on the Poesta — 11 mi
• Commercial National Bank — 11 mi