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History
in a Pecan Shell
The town was named to honor Samuel J. Tilden, the runner-up in the
1876 Presidential election.
In 1858, there were two communities in the area. Thirty people who
had congregated near the mouth of Leoncita Creek on the Frio River
looked around for something to name their town after. They came up
with Rio Frio.
In 1862 when Rio Frio was the home post for the 29th Brigade of the
Confederate Militia, the town’s first store was built.
Rio Frio was once called Dog Town for a mass execution of the towns
canine population by drunken cowboys. Dog Town had 190 people by 1870
and the town got its own post office the following year. Dog Town
was chosen as the county seat in 1877 when McMullen County was organized,
but propriety demanded a change of name. In 1878 a Union church was
shared by Baptists and Methodists and in 1879 a ferry across the Frio
was established near town to service the stagecoaches traveling the
San Antonio-Laredo road.
In 1884 the settlement got their own weekly newspaper, the Tilden
Ledger.
In 1896 Tilden's population was 450 and it increased to just over
500 by 1900. In the thities it dropped by half and then rebounded
back to 500 with the discovery of oil In 1949 it had 380 people and
now it’s back to an estimated 500.
Today, the generous courthouse square of Tilden would allow the playing
of softball games or the landings of small planes (in theory).
McMullen
County Courthouse
McMullen County Jail |
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The
Old Rock Store with a historical marker
TE photo, April 2001 |
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The
Court House Cafe
TE photo, April 2001 |
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