Thomas Ruckman

Thomas Ruckman, a founding father of Karnes County, was born in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, graduated in 1848 from the College of New Jersey, later Princeton University, taught in South Carolina for a year, and then came to San Antonio on Christmas morning, 1850, drawn by the cheap land and boundless opportunity of frontier Texas. In 1851 he started a trading post in the small Mexican settlement of Alamita on the Old Ox-Cart Road between San Antonio and Goliad, and as other businessmen followed, he built a gristmill near the San Antonio River, enlarged his store, and erected a stately home. Soon afterward he took Dr. L. S. Owings as a partner, and together they anticipated a metropolis at this important roadstop. In 1852 they laid out a new town named Helena in honor of Owings' wife, and when Karnes County organized in 1854, Helena became the county seat. Ruckman served as postmaster there from 1854 to 1857, continued for nearly 40 years as a leading merchant and banker, helped found the Helena Academy in 1872, and was buried in the Masonic Cemetery of Helena.

Texas · United States