The Junior Historian, Volume 28, Number 6, May 1968 Page: 31
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THE JUNIOR HISTORIAN
illegal. Nevertheless, the records were
moved by wagon from Bullhead to
Leakey.
No one knew better than those who
lived in the plateau country just how dif-
ficult the life there was, and, in a letter
to his young nephew, Thomas B. Wood-
ruff described the Bullhead country as
he knew it in 1882:
I would be more than glad to see you but
there is not much for a person to do here in
your line but you might get a situation in
Uvalde, though. If you can put up with a rough
living and a rough country and rough people
you are more than welcome to stay at my
ranch as long as you please free of cost wel-
come at any time.
In a letter of about the same period,
Alicia Caldwell refers to the time it takes
to make the trip from Uvalde to Bull-
head, a distance of some fifty miles. "Bull-
head is my address now. You can come
through Uvalde in one day and trail a
large two horse mail route."
Some time after 1880, the name of
Bullhead was changed to Vance. This
change came about after a member of
the Parkerson family, who was postmas-
ter at Bullhead for fifteen years, was
asked one day while making a train trip,
where she was from. When the lady post-
master replied "Bullhead," the inquirer
made fun of the town's name. The cit-
izens of the community, feeling insulted,
petitioned the Postmaster General to
change Bullhead to the more respectable
name of Vance. The official date of thechange is not known; but letters to
Thomas H. Wright, dated March 24,
1882, and May 24, 1882, indicate that
the name was still Bullhead. In a letter to
his nephew written on July 22, 1884,
Thomas B. Woodruff relates, "I am going
back to the canyon for the present so you
might direct yore letters to Bullhead."
Two other letters, dated July 6, 1885,
and August 7, 1885, indicate that it was
several years before the citizens of the
community used the name of Vance.
The residents of Bullhead chose thehome of Vance for Xavier Wanz, a mem-
ber of Henri Castro's colony, another em-
presario community in early Texas. The
town was laid off in lots and blocks in
1884; and Henry Well, who owned the
townsite, sold lots to persons moving into
the community and also conveyed to the
Vance school trustees certain lots on
which to construct a school building.
As time passed, the little town seemed
to dwindle, perhaps because the original
founders died or moved away. In 1890,
Vance was described as a one-store ranch
supply point and post office with a popu-
lation of fifty. In 1913, with the creation
of a new county from parts of Kerr,
Bandera, and Edwards counties, Vance
became part of Real County.
Vance had a reported population of
twenty-five from 1920 to 1948; and the
town today, although it can hardly be
described as prosperous, still is serving
a vital purpose in sup-
S plying summer camps
in the Edwards Plateau
area.31
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Texas State Historical Association. The Junior Historian, Volume 28, Number 6, May 1968, periodical, May 1968; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth391564/m1/33/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.