UVALDE, TEXAS. Uvalde is on U.S. highways 90 and 83, State highways 55, 117, and 140, and the Southern Pacific Railroad, eighty-three miles west of San Antonio and seventy miles east of Del Rio in south central Uvalde County. It was founded by Reading W. Black, who settled there in 1853. Black and Nathan L. Stratton operated a ranch on the road between San Antonio and Fort Duncan. By 1854 Black had opened a store, two rock quarries, and a lime kiln; he also prepared a garden and an orchard, repaired nearby roads, and built a permanent home. Black hired Wilhelm C. A. Thielepape as surveyor in May 1855 to lay out a town which he called Encina. The town plan had four central plazas which still existed in 1989. Seminole, Tonkawa, and Lipan-Apache Indian raids and temporary withdrawal of troops from nearby Fort Inge discouraged settlement during the first year. The return of troops to Fort Inge and the community's proximity to the road connecting San Antonio with the western United States eventually encouraged growth.