Von Ormy, Texas

Everything Von Ormy is known for

1 song mention this city 1 artist from here

Music in Von Ormy

Songs About Von Ormy

I-35
Max Stalling
7%
"I didn't pull off in Von Ormy, like I normally do"

Artists From Von Ormy

C
Cheyenne Saenz
country

Rivers & Roads in Song near Von Ormy

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Von Ormy.

Interstate 35 43 songs US Route 90 9 songs Interstate 10 36 songs San Antonio River 2 songs Chisholm Trail 8 songs Frio River 13 songs

History of Von Ormy

The Bloodiest Battle in Texas RoadyGoat

Somewhere in the woods and fields around you lies the site of the Battle of Medina, the deadliest battle ever fought on Texas soil. In August 1813, a group of about 1,400 revolutionaries—Tejanos, Anglo-Americans, and Native Americans—calling themselves the Republican Army of the North, fought to free Texas from Spain. They were met by a larger, professionally trained Spanish Royalist army. The republicans were lured into a trap, and the battle was a slaughter. Up to 1,300 of the revolutionaries were killed, and the Spanish army showed no mercy, executing any survivors they found. The exact location of the battle has been lost to time, a historical mystery that archaeologists are still trying to solve. But it happened right here, a brutal, bloody chapter in the fight for Texas independence, hidden just beneath the surface of modern Von Ormy.

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The Fight to Create Von Ormy RoadyGoat

The city of Von Ormy is one of the youngest in Texas, and its birth was anything but quiet. In the mid-2000s, as San Antonio grew south, residents here faced the prospect of being annexed. A small group, led by a young law student named Art Martinez de Vara, decided to fight back by creating their own city. In May of 2008 they won, and Von Ormy was born, with Martinez de Vara elected mayor that November. They championed a 'Liberty City' model - four straight annual ten percent property tax cuts, aimed at zero, with sales tax carrying the load - and it drew national attention. It also created ferocious local conflict. Three council members balked at zeroing out the property tax, a disputed vote led to an unauthorized meeting at the fire station and open-meetings arrests, and in November 2015 voters narrowly rewrote the city charter itself, converting Von Ormy from a five-member council to a two-commissioner government by a margin of just fourteen votes, 129 to 115. That recent, passionate history defines Von Ormy: a town that fought for its own existence and then kept arguing about what it should be.

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Crossing the Medina: From Ford to Freeway RoadyGoat

The spot where you're crossing the Medina River is a hundred and forty years of bridge-building stacked in one place. The river set the problem: it floods fast and hard. For generations the answer was Garza's Crossing — a shallow ford, and a ferry when the water came up. Then in 1881 the International-Great Northern Railroad pushed the first rail line from San Antonio to Laredo through here and threw its bridge across the Medina about a mile west of that ferry, up out of the flood. A depot went up on the south bank, the settlement followed the tracks, and in 1886 it took the name Von Ormy after Count Norbert von Ormay, an Austrian nobleman living nearby — the postmaster misspelled it and the misspelling stuck. In 1906 the first steel highway bridge went over the Medina here. The structure you're on now, the Interstate 35 crossing, is the end of that line of thinking: piers sunk into bedrock and a deck carried high above the flood plain. Same ancient problem, four different centuries of answers.

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Von Ormy, TX

1861

Von Ormy is in southwest Bexar County along Interstate 35 and the Medina River. The community is named for Count Norbert von Ormay, an Austrian nobleman who lived in the area in the mid-1880s. The town was previously known as Medina Crossing and was renamed “Von Ormy” by postmaster Branson Bywater in 1886. The community was originally founded one mile east at Garza’s Crossing sometime after Texas declared its independence. In 1861 San Antonio merchant Enoch Jones moved to the area and retired to his “Castle on the Medina,” a large limestone Pennsylvania-style home overlooking the south bank of the Medina River. The house was reported to be the first in Texas to have indoor plumbing. In 1881 the International-Great Northern Railroad constructed the first rail line connecting San Antonio and Laredo. The rail bridge across the Medina was built one mile west of the ferry at Garza’s Crossing at present Von Ormy. The area surrounding the rail depot on the south bank of the Medina grew quickly and was called “Medina Crossing” by the IGNR. The early settlers of Medina Crossing were almost entirely from Garza’s Crossing. Rail access also changed the local economy from cattle ranching to cotton and winter vegetable farming. Count Norbert von Ormay Auffenberg, an Austrian nobleman, arrived in 1886 with twenty servants. The count purchased the “Castle on the Medina.” The arrival of the count and Countess Emma was a sensation in San Antonio and widely reported in the San Antonio newspapers. Postmaster Branson Bywater relocated the Mann’s Crossing post office to a new location near the rail depot and re-named the community “Von Ormy,” misspelling the name of Count von Ormay. Though the count and countess hastily returned to Dresden, Saxony, after less than eighteen months in the castle, the house was still known locally as the “Von Ormy Castle” in the early twenty-first century. The Von Ormy School opened just after 1900 and provided classes through the eighth grade. In 1914 the Von Ormy Cottage Sanitarium opened to treat tuberculosis patients. That year the town had two grocers, a general store, a cotton gin, and a population of 350. In 1919 a hurricane destroyed the Santisima Trinidad Catholic Church at Garza’s Crossing, and it was rebuilt in Von Ormy in 1930. In 1946 the population was still 350. The Von Ormy School closed in 1952 and students began attending the newly-formed Southwest Rural School District. After World War II the community declined; in 1965 nine businesses and 100 residents were reported. Since that time the population has grown steadily, and in 2000 Von Ormy had 1,300 residents and twenty businesses. The City of Von Ormy was incorporated on May 30, 2008, and included parts of Garza’s Crossing and Mann’s Crossing.

Tsha Handbook →

McCulloch Cemetery

1835

Samuel McCulloch, Jr. (1810-1893), wounded at the Battle of Goliad October 9, 1835, was one of the first casualties in the Texas Revolution. This site is part of land he received in 1850 as a bounty for his service. The oldest marked grave is that of his father who died in 1855. It became known as Medina Baptist Cemetery after he deeded 1.5 acres to the church in 1861. In 1866 the congrgegation relocated and the site became a community cemetery. Buried here are area pioneers, Civil War veterans, noted potter Louis Meyer, and many early citizens of Bexar County. This burial ground is also known as Mann's Crossing Cemetery.

Historical Marker →

Bexar, TX

1854

Bexar, also known as La Colorada, is two miles west of Somerset on Farm Road 2790 and Kinney Road, eighteen miles southwest of downtown San Antonio in southwestern Bexar County. Bexar was first settled by John Kinney (also spelled Kenney), an Irish farmer and rancher, in 1854. In 1868 Kinney and other area residents founded San Patricio de Bexar Catholic Church. By the mid-1880s the Kinney family was operating an open pit coal mine in Bexar. Coal was originally transported to San Antonio by ox-cart. The Bexar post office opened in 1883 in the general store, which was painted bright red. For this reason, the town was known by the Hispanic workers as “La Colorada” or “La Mina de la Colorada.” In 1894 there were thirty to forty-five small houses, a general store owned by John Conoly and Dr. James A Matthews, a doctor’s office, a theater, a post office, a cotton gin, a dance hall, a cantina, and three churches. In 1909 the Artesian Belt Railroad came through the area and bypassed Bexar. The town of Somerset was established two miles to the east on the rail line and most of Bexar moved to Somerset. A spur was eventually constructed to connect the coal mine. In 1913 C.C. Kurtz, while drilling a water well, discovered oil in Somerset. This turned out to be the largest shallow oil producing field in the world at the time. The local economy quickly shifted to oil production. Shortly thereafter the general store closed, all three churches moved to Somerset, and Bexar went into decline. In the late 2000s the three Bexar cemeteries were still in use and a few scattered houses remained in the area.

Tsha Handbook → · 3.3 mi away

Somerset, TX

1909

Somerset is off State Highway 1604 fifteen miles southwest of San Antonio in Bexar County. It was named for a settlement that had been begun in 1848 three miles farther south, in what is now Atascosa County, by a group of Baptist families from Somerset, Kentucky. The present site was named Somerset when the First Townsite Company was formed on the Artesian Belt Railroad right-of-way on May 25, 1909, by A. M. Pyron, Carl Kurz, and Jonas A. Kerr. Many of the residents of Old Somerset and nearby Bexar eventually moved to the new townsite. In 1913, while drilling for artesian water, Kurz discovered oil. A boom followed. The Somerset oilfield extended from Somerset to below Pleasanton and was the largest known shallow field in the world at that time. Two oil refineries in the field and a pipeline into San Antonio handled the high-gravity crude. The town grew rapidly from fifty residents in 1925 to 700 in 1928; it was served by a state bank, a ten-room hotel, and several machine and blacksmith shops. A post office opened there in 1920. A nearby lignite coal mine also added to the booming economy of the area. During the 1920s farmers turned from cotton to dryland fruit and vegetable farming. In 1931 the Somerset Fruit Growers Exchange building was dedicated, and between truck farming, oil, and coal, the town prospered until the mid-1930s, when diminishing oil returns and the Great Depression caused a decline. In 1931 the town reported twenty businesses; by 1958 there were only eight. In 1920 the Somerset Independent School District was formed from at least five other school districts: Wildman, Senior, Bexar, Old Rock (Old Somerset area), and Oak Island. As of 1990 the district included some eighty-four square miles and was located in two counties, Bexar and Atascosa. The population of Somerset increased gradually during the late 1960s and 1970s, topping 1,000 in 1978. Somerset was incorporated in 1973 and has a mayor-council form of city government . In 1990 Somerset reported 1,144 residents, many of whom worked in farming, ranching, and oilfield drilling and maintenance; in addition, a great number worked in San Antonio or surrounding areas. At that time the community had a chamber of commerce, a national bank, some eighteen rated businesses, and several civic clubs and organizations. In 2000 the population reached 1,550.

Tsha Handbook → · 3.3 mi away

Ruiz-Herrera Cemetery

1836

Started in 1840's; still used by founding families. Graves include those of Texas patriots Francisco Antonio Ruiz, 1836 acting mayor, whose father and uncle signed Declaration of Independence; and Blas Herrera, who alerted the Alamo defenders to Santa Anna's approach. (1967)

Historical Marker → · 3.4 mi away

Enoch Jones Farmstead

1837

Enoch Jones (1802-1863) purchased the land at this site, part of an 1808 Spanish colonial land grant to Ygnacio Perez, in 1837. An Ohio native, Jones was already a nationally known engineer when he moved to Texas permanently in 1846. He opened a general merchandise store in San Antonio and became a prominent citizen. In 1851 Jones bought out his partner John Smith to become the sole owner of this land. Though some evidence suggests that earlier buildings may have been present, construction began on the farmstead buildings in 1856 with stone quarried on site. A large house, barn, and outbuildings were erected. After Jones' death, the family continued to live on the property until they sold it in 1895 to Count Norbert Von Ormay (Ormy) of Prussia and his wife. The Von Ormays intended to establish a royal court in the home, but sold the property within two years. Though he was a resident of the area only a short time, the count's name was adopted by the community as Von Ormy. After a series of owners, T. B. Baker bought the land in 1915. The president of Baker Hotels, the new owner called his land the St. Anthony Ranch, for the St. Anthony Hotel in San Antonio. The Baker family held the property until 1994. The "Castle on the Medina" has been home to many prominent area families. Its legacy stands as a memorial to the pioneers of Bexar County. (1998)

Historical Marker →

Things to Do in Von Ormy

historical 15.1 mi away
The Alamo

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The Alamo

Remember the Alamo. The 1836 last stand that became Texas' most sacred site.
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Mission San José

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A 400-Year-Old House Crosses the Ocean

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The Frozen Dialect

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John T. Floore's Country Store

John T Floore opened his country store dance hall on the old Bandera road in Helotes in 1942 and Willie Nelson played it so many times for so many years that…
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Drought Locusts and Cholera

The Alsatian settlers who founded Castroville in 1844 faced a gauntlet of biblical proportions. First came Comanche raids. Then a fifteen-month drought…
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The Little Alsace of Texas

In 1844 a French-born empresario named Henri Castro led 700 Alsatian farmers across the Atlantic to settle 25 miles west of San Antonio. They built…

Everything Near Von Ormy

1002 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the nearest 200 are listed here — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

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