The railroad was built through Boerne sometime in 1887. I remember when the train used to come through Boerne every morning at about ten o’clock going north. At the depot, which was located at the east end of Theissen Street, there was an arm that extended out and the crew would attach a mailbag to it when they went by going north. Every afternoon at about two it would come back through heading for San Antonio. In later years it would have extra time and either going or coming it would stop just south of the Sisterdale Road cutoff crossing, across Main Street from the Live Oak Cafe (sometimes called the Live Roach Cafe), and the crew would go over for a snack.
The jobs at the station were all handled by one station master. At one time this was a lady. Her responsibilities as station master were to operate the depot. She handled the telegraph, Railway Express, Southern Pacific Transport, seeing that the post office was notified of the mailbag, sweeping the floor, keeping the fire going by using coal that was left off by the train, and probably two or three other chores. This wonderful woman had the habit of putting on the appropriate cap as she was doing each job. We lived near the depot for a while and I remember going by and talking with her and being fascinated by her skill at using the telegraph key.
“We lived near the depot for a while and I remember going by and talking with her and being fascinated by her skill at using the telegraph key.”
Trains ran through Boerne for about eighty years. The tracks were pulled up shortly thereafter, then around forty years after that someone decided to turn the old railroad right-of-way into a hike and bike trail. In looking for a name for the trail, another someone must have decided to go back in time to their childhood and name the trail “Old Number Nine.” When I say “go back to their childhood,” it may have been in remembrance of the old nursery rhyme “Engine, Engine Number Nine, going down Chicago line….” Oh how catchy that diddy was that we remember it for so long. What a name for our tourist population that it might also take them back to their childhood. However, at no time was the railroad from San Antonio to Kerrville/Fredericksburg named the “Number Nine.”
From the October 2026 issue of The Kendall Gentleman.
John Eddie Vogt has shared Boerne’s history with readers before in Uncle Willie and Zodiac Farming and Musings of JEV: Town Water Tank. For more Kendall County history this issue, read The Holekamps: A Family That Helped Build Kendall County.