Idlewild began as a growing farming settlement by July 1867, when Romanus Gross, age 51, and his 19-year-old son George were attacked by a group of Indians on horseback on land belonging to Romanus Gross's son-in-law, Michael Kauffmann, while men from Castroville pursued the Indians over accusations of horse stealing; both Grosses were shot in the side, and George was scalped. The community was formally organized about 1879, the same year lawyer Thomas Dunkin arrived from New York and lived and worked as a tutor in Michael Kauffmann's household. As the settlement grew, Dunkin and Kauffmann persuaded their neighbors of the need for a schoolhouse, with Kauffmann providing the land and Dunkin serving as the first teacher under an innovative curriculum designed in New York for one-room schools. In 1881, Dunkin offered twenty acres of his own land for a railroad station and townsite, but because other necessary land could not be secured, the station was built at the site that became Lacoste. Competition between the communities remained high, and Idlewild continued as an agricultural and livestock center. In 1887, Dunkin applied for a U.S. postal permit, first proposing the names Ida, for Michael Kauffmann's daughter, and then Ivanhoe, but both were rejected because they were already used elsewhere in Texas; he finally named the community Idlewild after Idlewild, New York. The post office remained in service until 1902, and Idlewild's second school closed in 1955.