Hans Heinrich Dietrich Knibbe, who founded Knibbe Ranch, sailed into Texas in 1845 after a particularly difficult trip. He lost his wife to cholera during the passage, and the ship ran aboard a reef, requiring passengers to throw every bit of their heavy farming equipment overboard to become afloat again.

Though Hans started life in Texas with no farming equipment, he did have money to buy land. He chose rangeland along the Guadalupe River because it reminded him of Germany and bought it for $1 per acre.

Eventually, he would acquire about 25,000 acres, where he raised oxen for farming and transportation. He also built a sawmill, flourmill, and shingle mill.

The settlement, known as Knibbeville, thrived during the late 19th century. Besides their own post office, residents had the Knibbe General Store, Knibbe Brothers cotton gin, a blacksmith shop, a one-room school and a dance hall. The buildings are long gone, lost to time and fire, but traces of the past — a broken concrete foundation, a millstone — can still be found just outside the ranch’s main gate.

Home on the Range

At Knibbe Ranch, little has changed in the last 150 years. A spring-fed creek still flows lazily through the brush and grand live oaks that define the Texas Hill Country; prickly pear cactus dots the 1,000-acre landscape; and cattle forage the terrain, seeking tasty bits of grass.

A large enclosed pavilion and rodeo arena have been added to welcome regular visitors to Knibbe Ranch, but they come simply to see and enjoy what Texas ranching is all about.