C.C. Gibbs [Cover]
Name/Title
C.C. Gibbs [Cover]Description
A 1905 envelope mailed from Cuthbert, Texas via Colorado, Texas on January 9, 1905 simply addressed to "C. C. Gibbs / San Antonio / Tex". When this cover was mailed, San Antonio's population was roughly 75,000 people. As one of the executives for the Southern Pacific Railroad and having built the Hotel Gibbs as San Antonio’s first high-rise office building, Army Colonel C. C. Gibbs' owned about 10,000 acres of land and built his home as one of the first in the now historical Government Hill neighborhood. His personal residence was a prominent social symbol with six chimneys, two wrap-around porches, and Victorian charm, that mail was delivered without identifying its street name and number.Context
Cuthbert was on Farm Road 1229 some fourteen miles northwest of Colorado City in northwestern Mitchell County. The community began in 1890 when D. T. Bozeman, a teacher in a nearby country school, settled in the area and built a wagonyard and a store. A post office was granted to the community in 1891, with Bozeman's wife, Ellen, as postmistress; the office was named for a family friend, Thomas Cuthbertson. A school was started at the community in 1893 but lasted only four years. Bozeman installed a telephone switchboard in his home in 1904, and his wife served as the operator for local subscribers. In 1907 a new county school district was established in Cuthbert. During the teens and early 1920s Cuthbert grew to include two stores, a church, a blacksmith shop, a gin, a school, and a telephone office. In 1920 the T. and P. Abrams No. 1 oil well, one of the first commercial oil ventures in the Permian Basin, was drilled just over a mile north of the town. A post office, two businesses, and a population of twenty-five were reported at the community in 1936, the year that its school was consolidated with that of Colorado City. After World War II the improvement of rural roads in the area led to Cuthbert's decline as it lost its trade to Colorado City. The Cuthbert post office was discontinued about 1960, when the town reported one business and a population of twenty-five. By 1974 only a cemetery and scattered farms remained in the area.Category
Discontinued Post Offices (DPOs), Ghost Towns
Urbanization, TSHA Categories