Stonewall, TX

Stonewall is on the Pedernales River thirteen miles east of Fredericksburg in southeastern Gillespie County. It was named for Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson by Israel P. Nuñez, who established a stage station near the site in 1870 and a post office in 1875. In 1860 a few families were living in log cabins there on a grant held by Justa Flores. In 1879 a settlement called Millville was founded nearby, and in 1882, when the stage station and post office were moved there, its name was changed to Stonewall. The German settlers combined sheep raising with cattle raising and experimented with fruit trees. The Stonewall area is today a major source of peaches. Andreas Lindig built the first limekiln in Gillespie County at Stonewall, and from him the other settlers learned to manufacture lime (see LIMEKILNS). Stonewall is 1½ miles west of Lyndon Baines Johnson State Park; part of the land in the park was owned at one time by an original German settler of Stonewall, Casper Danz. The population of Stonewall, estimated at 200 in 1925, attained an estimated high of 300 in 1961 and fell to a low of 150 in 1964. It was estimated at 245 from 1974 to 1990. The population reached 469 in 2000.