Dinero

DINERO, TEXAS . Dinero is on Farm Road 534 some ten miles southeast of George West in southeastern Live Oak County. The town was first named Barlow's Ferry, after E. Barlow, who in 1846 ran ferries across the Nueces River for local ranchers. In 1872 the name was changed to Dinero ("money" in Spanish); there were rumors of a nearby silver mine hidden by Indians, and Mexican treasure-seekers favored the area. The community's name was probably changed, however, to reflect the area's profitable resources, which over the years have included cotton, dairy farms, and oil and gas wells. The community's first school opened in 1858 and closed in 1894. In 1885 Dinero was granted a post office, and George Wright's general store served a population of twenty. The community's population rose to seventy by 1892, and by 1906 Dinero had two schools with two teachers and a total enrollment of twenty-four. The population was thirty when the town moved a mile west in 1914 to be on the San Antonio, Uvalde and Gulf Railroad. Oil and gas discoveries in the 1920s failed to make Dinero a boomtown, and only a church, a school, several businesses, and scattered dwellings marked the community on the 1936 county highway map. The community's population reached fifty in 1943, and Dinero's separate schools for white and Mexican-American students were annexed to the George West Independent School District in 1949. From 1964 to 1990 Dinero reported thirty-five residents and three businesses. In 2000 the population was 344 with three businesses.