Farmers, Ranchers, the Land and the Falls - Texas Parks & Wildlife ...

A History of the Pedernales Falls Area, 1850–1970
Acknowledgments
Researching history is always collaborative work, but for this project I have
been even more fortunate than usual in finding people who have been willing and
able to help me understand my subject. Many others have worked, in ways large
and small, to encourage me to begin this study and to complete it.
I’m particularly indebted to Bobby, Maude and Cheryl Wilson; Dena, Loma
and Jerry Wenmohs; Joyce Brock; Sherill East, and his granddaughters Diana
L. Cooper and Candace Sandefur; Lila Jean Hobbs; Bill Casparis; and Polly
Miller. Bobby Wilson spent many hours with me graciously sharing his extensive
knowledge of the early settlers in the Pedernales Falls area, especially the Wilson,
Raines and Trammell families. Bobby and his daughter Cheryl walked me
around the area their ancestors settled, and Bobby and Maude very kindly shared
family materials, including an old family Bible, that informed and enriched my
understanding of the people who first settled in the Pedernales Falls area. Joyce
Brock generously shared genealogical knowledge she had acquired over the years.
Dena, Loma and Jerry Wenmohs also spent hours of their time helping me to
understand the Cypress Mill/Pedernales Falls area, and shared documents and
research materials that were very helpful. Sherill East talked with me for several
hours about his experiences with the Wheatleys and the Circle Bar ranch, and
shared many photographs documenting them; his granddaughters, particularly
Diana Cooper, very graciously and patiently volunteered old photographs and
family knowledge. I will never forget their generosity in troubled times. Lila
Jean Hobbs talked with me about Herman Reiner and her own life near the
Pedernales Falls, and Bill Casparis and Polly Miller also helped me to understand.
Even a brief look at the endnotes attached to this study will show how important
these people have been: without them, this history could never have been written.
Thanks also to several people at the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
I did most of the research and writing for this study back in 1995 and 1996,
when Dr. Cynthia Brandimarte was TPWD’s Cultural Resources program
director (currently the Historic Sites and Structures program director). Cindy
and Clay Brewer, then regional resource coordinator, provided support for my
work then, and Cindy was an able and sympathetic administrator. Most recently,
in 2010, Dr. Brandimarte asked me to revisit the project and to work up the
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