Come to the Fair
Be a Blue Ribbon "Champion" There
By Billye Beth Baker
In 1924 a group of prominent, visionary men in Fayette County took a step of faith that continues to cultivate unity, hospitality, prosperity and festivity in our area today.
Over 60 citizens confirmed their confidence and commitment to the goal of celebrating and promoting the talents and spirits of our county. On the last Saturday in April, 1924, about 60 subscribers for stock in the Fayette County Fair Association, Inc. met in the District Courtroom of the Fayette County Courthouse to promote the fair and discuss an appropriate location. C. J. von Rosenberg was elected general chairman of the stock selling committee to amass funds for purchase of grounds for the fair. (Journal. 5/1/24)
After inspecting several sites by auto on Sunday, May 11th the stock holders made their selection. (Journal, 5/1/24). On July 11th, 1924, over 80 acres for the fair grounds were conveyed by Alex Eugen von Rosenberg, Sr. to the Directors of the Fayette County Fair Association. Smaller strips of land for roads, ingress and egress were included by Frank Schulze, Annie Struve, heirs of Henry V. Minden, Otto Tramp and John Schroeder.
The first Directors of the Fair Association were: H. W. F. Meyer, president; C. G. Franz, M. F. Granville, George Hausler, Jake Alexander, B. F. Harigel, William Hermes, T. H. Kroll, and C. G. Robson. Harry Oeding was the secretary. (Deed, Volume 122, p. 72-73)
After this eventful conclusion, active work on the fair grounds was the order of the day. Everyone in town was enlisted to make the first fair a good one. (Journal 5/1/24)
In haste, many hours were spent to get the grounds and buildings ready. George Hausler was in charge of the roadways leading up to the fair. C. G. Robson was in charge of the fence and water well committee. A. J. Woehl was the building contractor for the grounds, M. F. Granville was appointed to see that the main buildings were erected. Chairman of the concessions and amusements committee was Jake Alexander. William Hermes was chairman of the horseracing committee and also supervised construction of the race track. The first gateman was C. G. Franz. Publicity chairman was B. F. Harigal. (Record, 3/1986)
Citizens worked as a team aspiring to make the fair a resounding success. A spirit of pride, hospitality, competition and excitement filled the air. Who cans the best pickles? Who bakes the best pie? Who grows the best corn? Who owns the best bull and trains the fastest horse? Who wins the "Blue Ribbon"? Bring your best girl, then give her a whirl at the dance that evening. Stay all day to enjoy the fellowship, food and frolic. This spirit of festivity and competition is still the driving force behind the county fair today.
The second annual fair in 1925 advertised four big days from September 30th to October 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Some events were: Horse Racing each day at 2 p.m.; Special Vaudeville daily; Better Baby Show; Big Live Stock & Poultry Exhibit and Two Football Games. It was billed as the Biggest Fair in South Texas.
On April 13th and 14th, 1925, jockey Joe Carter from Austin was prepared to train horses at the fair grounds race course. Then on April 21st, 1925, the fair grounds were used for the San Jacinto Celebration. Governor Miriam "Ma" Ferguson was invited to speak at 11 a.m. (Journal of 4/1925)
Our forefathers’ adventurous dream of a vigorous fair to encourage progress lives on and has flourished until today. The scenic 80 acres at times seems insufficient for all the events, crowds and parking spaces required. All our Fayette County fair workers, past and present, deserve to wear the "Blue Ribbon" title as champions.
Maria Faison
By Marie W. Watts
Once upon a time not everyone lived happily ever after. A case in point is Maria Josepha Faison. Daughter of Peter and Susan Faison, Maria was born in Hardeman County, Tennessee on December 13, 1862. In 1871 Maria penciled a well-written letter to her father who was in Texas settling the estate of his brother, N.W. Faison. She chats of news from home—her younger brother Percy finds eggs, feeds the hogs, and wants father to bring him a ball—and asks her father to come home. Instead the family moved to La Grange, Texas around 1872-73.
By 1877 Maria was happily attending the Female Virginia Institute in Staunton, Virginia which was run by the widow of Confederate general J. E. B. Stuart. There she became acquainted with distant relatives of the Faison family and made fast friends. Her school day was as follows: A bell rings at 6 a.m. She gets up and studies until 7:30 when another bell rings. Then it’s to chapel for scripture reading followed by breakfast. She then cleans her room. Chapel morning service is held at 9 a.m. and at 9:15 she writes for 30 minutes. Instruction then begins, with a half hour for each class of study. Dinner is served 1 p.m. Musical practice follows for one hour a day—vocal lessons two days a week and instrumental two days a week. She then takes a supervised walk from 4 to 5 and eats supper is at 6. Study is from 7 to 9 and visiting from 9:30 to 10. Bed time is 10 p.m., with teacher checks to assure compliance. On Fridays the girls have calisthenics with music; a soiree, with many people attending. They wear black alpaca suits with red flannel trim. Maria loves school, she enthusiastically reports to her parents, and doesn’t want to go anywhere else.
In the winter of 1880 she thinks wistfully about home cooking, commenting on the school fare: they live on rice and hominy with Irish potatoes—mashed up, baked, fried and cooked in every shaped and form. She wishes she could be home for Christmas, if only for a week, where she would enjoy nice things to eat such as turkey, cheese, and pineapples. Occasionally she pines for a boiled custard or transparent pie from home.
Throughout her letters home Maria is clear she is trying hard to please her parents and enthusiastically talks about visiting with relatives and friends. Her letters plainly reveal she loves the finer things in life. A present to her mother was delayed, for instance, because the jeweler did not have solid silver spoons and Maria was not about to send plated ones because she knew mamma didn’t like them. She sent her aunty a new card case as she lost her old one and a new fashion neck tie, an immense white tie worn tied over the collar in a large bow knot. Her aunty, Maria proclaimed, could introduce style in La Grange. She talked of wanting kid shoes, new hats, new winter outfits, and money. Yellow fever in La Grange is tough, she comments, when husband and wife both have it in a time of poverty and with no servants.
From the gossipy comments Maria would make in her letters home, it is apparent she found La Grange a bit backward and dull. She thought Mr. Cook should not leave La Grange just as prospects were getting so bright with the railroad coming in and that the town was improving rapidly, getting rid of the Renfros and some others. She received a copy of La Grange Journal, commenting the contents of paper were improving and La Grange would soon be quite a little city because of all the new buildings and a bridge over the Colorado! When she returns, she says, she will think of herself on Broadway or Fifth Avenue quite often.
By 1880, however, cracks in her fairy tale life began to appear. She writes home that young Willie Ledbetter, with female escort, had come to visit. An older woman, Miss Florence, had given permission earlier for a visit and Ms. Stuart had interviewed the young man before he saw Maria. Maria commented he looked ugly in his mustache but that his manners had improved and he was not as conceited as before. Her father flew into a rage and Maria penned back that she would not have seen him had she known, adding that she was not anxious to see Willie and won’t do so again.
In 1881, Peter ordered his only daughter home. A letter from the school pointed out the school’s position that Peter had a bad impression of Maria’s progress and abilities. Of arithmetic, the letter explained, one can never learn too much and she was greatly improved in music. The problem was Maria’s delicate health. For two springs she had been ill and the doctor had ordered all studies stopped.
In August, 1881, Maria made it clear to her parents she hated to leave Virginia and was enjoying herself immensely with dances, picnics, and riding. Was another suitor a problem for her papa? Maria mentioned that others say she and Mr. Bumgardner, are desperately in love. Maria says she does not think so but has to put up with teasing.
Maria wrote to her mother on March 11, 1882 to explain why she had not returned home.
The only reason, she said, is that she had not been to see several of their relatives whom she must visit before leaving. Additionally it was hard to travel as none of boys were there and she was not allowed to travel alone. Apparently trying to spare her mother’s feelings, she added that she wants to see her and hopes her mother does not think her indifferent.
Maria makes one last plea to her father in a March 20th letter. Peter was demanding the school issue Maria a diploma even though she had not finished her studies. Mortified, Maria urges him not to say anything more on the issue to Ms. Stuart because the rules are not hers but the school’s. Begging to be allowed to stay and finish, she promises she would study over summer vacation. She did not want to stop school without more knowledge of math, geometry and, trigonometry.
Additionally, she adds, she wants to visit North Carolina before she goes home, begging her parents to come to North Carolina and go home with her. She asks papa whether he has given any thought to the idea of her going to New York and Niagara before going back to the wilds of Texas. She can travel alone, she insists, adding she thinks it’s better to go home in fall than in summer. However, she concludes, she is delighted with idea of going home soon.
Maria apparently returned home for good and appears to have done little further traveling. In 1883 a friend from school who lived in Dallas wrote to Mr. and Mrs. Faison, begging them to allow Maria to come for a visit. Whether she was allowed to go is unknown.
Only one letter exists to show the depths of despair to which Maria had sunk. From Flatonia, Texas she penned a letter to her mother on August 6, 1884. In wild, unstable handwriting she proclaims she is looking for a teaching position in either Flatonia or Schulenburg. She declares, “I am determined never to live in La Grange again. I had rather by far been dead long ago than to have suffered what I have in La Grange. I have had troubles in that town that you know nothing about and maybe never will because I cannot tell them. Poor India. I sometimes envy her. She is better off dead and out of the troubles and trials of this wicked world. I sometimes wish I were dead, though I know it is not right. Try to forgive me for all my past faults, which I know too well are many.”
On March 4, 1888 at the age 26, Maria Josepha Faison died at home in La Grange after an illness of four months. A towering tombstone in the La Grange cemetery pays tribute to her memory with these verses:
A precious one from us has gone,
A voice we loved is stilled,
A place is vacant from our home,
Which never can be filled.God in his wisdom has recalled
The boon His love has given
And though the body moulders here
The soul is safe in Heaven.Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
Maria’s letters home can be read in their entirety at the Fayette Public Library, Museum, and Archives in La Grange, Texas.
Nathaniel W. Faison
By L. J. Calley
We know about the Faison Home on South Jefferson Street in LaGrange, so who was Nathaniel Faison? In the old LaGrange City Cemetery lies his grave, marked by a tall, plain marble obelisk. In smallish letters we see his name. His gravestone clearly reads that he was born in Sampson County, North Carolina on April 24, 1817. He arrived in LaGrange at age 22 in 1839.
The signature event of his life occurred when he was only 25. The year was 1842, and San Antonio had just been occupied by an invading Mexican army under General Woll, a protégé of Santa Anna. This event infuriated the Texans, and standing under the oak tree at the corner of Colorado and Washington Streets, Captain Nicolas Dawson issued a call for volunteers to help drive Woll out of Texas. Faison and fourteen other mostly young men joined up for the adventure of their lives. Although they rode hard, thirty-nine more men joined them before they arrived at the scene of the Battle of Salado Creek. Since the Texans attacking Woll’s army numbered only about 200 compared to his 1,000-1,400, Dawson and his men felt a strong sense of urgency to join the fray. He asked for two men to go forward and scout. Faison and Alsey Miller volunteered. They had no idea what they were seeing, and their report had fateful consequences for everyone in the small command. They reported that the two sides were fully engaged with the outcome still in the balance when in fact the Mexican Army, after four furious hours, had worn down the main Texan force.
Before Dawson and his men advanced to their fate the Mexicans had already observed their presence. Woll ordered into action several hundred cavalry and infantry supported by a cannon. John Holland Jenkins, a member of the main Texan force, said that the Mexican cavalry lined up in formation and on command encircled Dawson and his men. As the cavalry began this maneuver the Texans realized to their horror that behind them was even more infantry with the cannon. As it raked them with grapeshot Dawson raised a white flag, but it went unnoticed or was ignored. By this time the Texans were killed, wounded or demoralized. In his report to Santa Anna, Woll said that the cavalry then advanced, dismounted, and “entering the wood, started cutting down every enemy they encountered. A quarter hour later all was finished.” Two Texans, Alsey Miller and Gonzalvo Woods miraculously escaped back to LaGrange. Fourteen, including Nathaniel Faison, were allowed to surrender. Thirty-seven, including Dawson, were killed.
After spending fifteen months in Perote Prison, Faison was released to return to La Grange, where he was hired as Deputy Fayette County Clerk in 1844. The first document to bear his signature as county clerk, ironically, was a land conveyance to settle the estate of William Eastland, a close friend since boyhood to Nicolas Dawson (even sharing the same middle name), a leader of the Mier Expedition a few months after the Battle of Salado Creek, and the first to draw a black bean and be shot after being taken prisoner there.
From 1845 until 1854 Faison was the Clerk of Fayette County. In 1848 he and Edwin Manton revisited the Dawson battlefield, collected the bones of those who died, and buried them on the hill above LaGrange.
The Census of 1860 revealed that Faison had $20,000 in real property and $8,000 in personal property. His occupation was listed as “gentleman.” Over the next ten years he continued to add to his land holdings, many of which are detailed in the deed records of Fayette County, although he had extensive acreage in other parts of the state also. In 1866 he bought and moved into what is now known as the Faison House. He owned over 35,000 acres when he died on the twenty-ninth of June, 1870. He never married.
Enough is known about this singular man to spark admiration and generate further curiosity, namely, why did he, being more literate than most Texans of his time, leave us so few written clues about himself?
The Faison House became the property of Nathanael Faison’s brother, Peter, who added the main wing in 1884. The La Grange Garden Club preserved the house by buying it from Peter’s daughter-in-law in 1961. The full restoration effort now underway will replace all the interior wall coverings, provide heating and air-conditioning, renovate the museum holdings, and landscape the property. The house is open to visitors on the second Saturday of each month.
How Fayette County Came To Be
by Larry K. RipperDid you ever wonder how and when Fayette County was organized? What distant events in our state's history would shape "old La Fayette's" boundaries, as we know them today?
In the days when Texas lands were still a part of Mexico, it was politically divided into governing municipalities. Two of these covered the entire lower Colorado and Brazos River basins. Mina formed the upper district, with its southern boundary near La Grange and the La Bahia Road. From there, the Municipality of Matagorda ran all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. The boundaries for these municipalities were often aligned with the river drainage systems, forming the basis for future land surveys. Much later, in North and West Texas, counties would be surveyed in a north-south, east-west orientation.
When the Republic of Texas was founded in 1836, the County of Bastrop was organized at the southern end of the Municipality of Mina, with Colorado County being formed at the upper end of the old Municipality of Matagorda. La Grange, and the La Bahia Road, again formed the natural boundary between these two new counties.
The Second Congress of the Republic of Texas authorized the organization of Fayette County on December 14, 1837. According to Weyand and Wade's An Early History of Fayette County, "The petition presented by Judge James Lester, Andrew Rabb, and John Moore, requested that the district near the dividing line between the counties of Bastrop and Colorado be formed into a county to be know as Fayette in honor of the Marquis de La Fayette, who had so materially aided the American Colonist earlier in their struggle for independence".
With five counties sharing its borders, our newly organized county was somewhat larger in size than it is today. As the population of Texas continued to grow, boundaries changed and new counties were formed. In 1846, Fayette would give up some of its territory to a new neighbor to the southwest, Lavaca. Again in 1874, the newly organized county of Lee to our north would take another chunk of God's country.
Today Fayette County is 934 square miles in size and almost 47 miles across at the widest point. She is traversed by the Colorado River, which divides it into two nearly equal parts. Our neighboring counties, starting to the north are Lee, Washington, Austin, Colorado, Lavaca, Gonzales, Caldwell, and Bastrop.
Fayette County a Century ago
by Ann Lamer
The following is an excerpt from an almanac published in the early 1900’s.
Fayette County is situated in the southern portion of central Texas, and is bisected by the Colorado River. La Grange, the county seat, is 95 miles northwest of the city of Houston. The population in 1900 was 36,542. Property values were assessed in 1903 at $8,378.080.00.
About one-half of the area is high rolling prairie, traversed by small creeks and branches, the other half timbered land and rich bottom land adjacent to the river and larger creeks. The soils of the prairies are divided between a black loam and a black tenacious lime land. The timber of the uplands is composed principally of post oak and small size blackjack. On the river and other streams are found pecan, burr oak, pin oak, white oak, elm, cedar, pine, hackberry, cottonwood, willow, sycamore and a few stately live oaks trees.
The Colorado, East and West Navidad Rivers, and Buckner’s, Cummin’s, Mulberry, Rabb’s and William’s Creeks are well distributed over the county allowing abundant water year round. There are also a few small lakes in the county where fishing and duck hunting in season are good. Springs are numerous with wells of good water obtained at 20 to 60 feet.
The principal crops are cotton and corn, though in the past few years, the growing of fruit has become popular and profitable in some sections. The average yield of cotton per acre is from a half to one bale per acre; corn from 30 to 60 bushels. Cottonseed oil mills are located at La Grange, Schulenburg and Flatonia and cotton compresses in La Grange and Schulenburg.
There is a cannery and a molasses mill at West Point, an ice factory and a broom factory at La Grange, a creamery at Fayetteville and a soon to be erected plant to manufacture pottery on the west side of the Colorado river.
Lignite is found in abundance with one coal belt extending across the county from near Carmine to Waelder. On the Colorado, three miles above La Grange, a considerable quantity has been mined. Other minerals have been located but not in sufficient quantities as to cause it to be a paying proposition.
Unimproved lands vary in price up to $25 per acre, while improved land sells at $20 to $50 per acre. There are no large pastures, nor is there any State land in the county.
There are 133 schools in the county, 89 for white and 44 for colored. The scholastic population is 6201 white and 2288 colored. La Grange, Flatonia and Ledbetter each have independent school districts.
The Missouri, Kansas & Texas; Houston & Texas Central; Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio, and San Antonio & Aransas Pass railroads pass through the county.
According to the last census La Grange, the county seat, has a population of 2400 and because of its many live oaks and shade trees is a beautiful town. It is just across the Colorado from the “bluff” where lie entombed the remains of Dawson’s men and the Mier prisoners. The courthouse is a massive stone structure and cost over $100,000.
Other important towns are Schulenburg, which has a population of 1200, Flatonia 1210, and Fayetteville 398. Other towns are Halstead, Plum, West Point, Ledbetter, Carmine, Engle, Ellinger, Winchester and Muldoon.
The First Year of Fayette County Commissioners Court In the Republic of Texas
By Gary E. McKee
At the July 1847 Fayette commissioners’ court meeting, it was ordered that the county clerk be authorized to transcribe all proceedings of the court from the time the county was organized. This shall be entered into “a well bound book” and the clerk shall be allowed twelve and a half cents for every hundred words transcribed. We are fortunate that the genesis of our county was recorded; although there are missing documents, what remains gives us insight into the issues of the day, some of which still remain, while others have disappeared with the changing times. During this time period, the term “commissioner” was used liberally to designate any person instructed by the court to perform county business.
January 18, 1838
Chief Justice Andrew Rabb Esq. administered the oath of office to the following citizens of the Republic of Texas: C. Fitzgerald, S. Alexander, J. Lewis, and B. Sherrer, installing them as County Commissioners and Justices of the Peace. J.S. Lester was called on to act as clerk pro tem.
The court got down to business and resolved that a county tax of twelve and a half cents be levied on every hundred dollars worth of property belonging to the citizens.
The next order of business was the designation of public roads and the persons responsible for their maintenance. During this time period citizens (designated commissioners) were responsible for maintaining the roads particularly when they went through their property. Roads leading to Bastrop, San Felipe, Washington (on the Brazos), Columbus and Gonzales and their caretakers were assigned. An order to clear out a road through Rabb’s Prairie to Cunningham’s on the Bastrop County line was issued. Some of the more notable commissioners were Joseph Beegle (sic), Joel Robinson (sic), Jesse Burnam (sic), N.W. Eastland, Norman Woods, David Berry and Redding Andrews.
April 21, 1838
It was resolved the petition of J.W. Dancy, agent for the Company of the Colorado City, be granted the right to establish a ferry on the Colorado River at a point assigned in the petition.
July 4, 1838
John H. Moore donated his ferry crossing property at the La Bahia crossing to the county. Moore received ninety eight dollars for his boat. The court then rented out the ferry operation to William Fitzgerald for one half of the proceeds for six months. Fitzgerald put up one thousand dollars bond. It was reported six months later that the boat was unfit for service and not worth repairing.
August, 1838
The court ordered the payment of eighty four dollars and fifty cents be paid to D. L. Kornegay (county clerk) for books and stationary needed for county business. A jail had been constructed at a cost of 460 dollars and that money should be appropriated to pay for it. In an effort to increase the tax base, it was ordered that non-residents be taxed on property that they own in the county. Elections were ordered to be held in the following precincts: the J.W. Woods settlement, Colorado City, La Grange and Cummins Creek.
November, 1838
It was resolved that the sum of fifty six dollars and twenty five cents be appropriated to be used to rent office space for the county clerk. The court approved 250 dollars for the purchase of a building formally occupied by W. Nabors as a grocery (saloon). The house was to be moved to the public square, evidently to be used as a courthouse.
This ends extracts of the available court minutes for the proceedings of the first organized government of Fayette County.
Leopold Fink, Killed in the Mexican War
by Sherie Knape
Leopold Fink was born in Wurttemberg, Germany on September 8, 1827. He came to Texas in 1840 and settled here in La Grange. In 1845, Texas became the 28th State of the United States of America. Though Texas was now officially part of the U.S., Mexico was not happy about this, so President Polk sent troops to the Texas-Mexico border to help protect Texas from any Mexican hostility. On May 13, 1846, the U.S. declared war on Mexico after an altercation on Texan soil. Although not everyone was happy about declaring war, the southern states led the way in volunteers. One in every 33 men in the southern states volunteered to fight, whereas only about one in every 1000 men in the Mid-Atlantic States volunteered. The northern states had even fewer volunteers with one in every 2500 volunteering. On June 15, 1847, Leopold enlisted as a blacksmith in Captain James Smith’s Company, 1st Texas Mounted Volunteers; although a month later, due to a technicality, his company was disbanded. Not willing to give up his service to the U.S. and Texas, he re-enlisted in Captain Jacob Robert’s Company F on August 12, 1847. Before Fink and his company could get to the border to fight the Mexicans, his regiment was detached and sent to the Pedernales River to patrol against raiding Indians in the area. After much of the Indian trouble had been taken care of, Fink and his regiment rejoined the company at Mier, Mexico. The company had crossed the Rio Grande and occupied Mier without much resistance, but causing much excitement. The Mexican army did not intervene, although guerillas and bands of raiders still caused frequent problems against the U.S. troops. While camped in the vicinity of Mier, they attended many “fiestas and fandangos, drinking and dancing with bright-eyed Mexican girls”. The company was to move on to Matamoras, Mexico and was waiting to depart until more U.S. troops arrived. On September 9, 1847, just a week before they were to leave, Leopold was killed by “accidental exchange of gunfire”. He was buried in a nearby field. His family, wanting a memorial for Leopold here in La Grange, placed a memorial in the Fink plot in the Old La Grange City Cemetery. The Fink family plot is a usual stop on the “Ghosts and Gravestones” Cemetery tour, which will be held on November 8, 2009.
First "Trains" Ever in Texas
by Stacy N. Sneed
The Flatonia Argus, 02-27-1887:
They were the first “Trains” ever had in Texas.
The Argus learns that the colored exodusters who left our town and vicinity last fall and winter for the purpose of settling in Wharton County are on their way back. Having no funds to settle railroad fare it is said they have adopted a novel expedient to get back. Someone during the winter, drove a large number of Mexican jackasses into Wharton County for sale and, and not being able to dispose of them at any price, turned them loose to forage for themselves.
The colored folks have captured the jacks, broke them gentle, and loading up with pots and pans, feather beds and the old women and babies on top, are coming back in a grand cavalcade. Happy Hollow, which has long had the appearance of a deserted city, is soon to be re-peopled.
An Electric and Ice Plant for Flatonia
Transcribed by Connie F. Sneed
August 15th, 1910 - Beaumont Enterprise and Journal Newspaper
Special to The Enterprise - College Station, Texas. Aug 14, 1910
Having faith in investments in Texas towns, a number of the members of the faculty of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas have associated together and with a practical man from Mississippi to put in an ice plant at Flatonia , Texas .
Flatonia has neither ice nor electric light plant. There was an electric light plant there at one time, but it was destroyed by fire. The town is a thriving one in Fayette County and it appeared to the investor as a proper place in which to locate. T.M. Spinks, who has been assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the A&M College of Mississippi, at Starkville, has resigned his position and is to come to Texas to take charge of the property. Associated with him are Professor F.C. Roitan, professor of electrical engineering and Dr. J. C. Blake, professor of Chemistry of the A&M College of Texas. They have a fifty year franchise at Flatonia and will invest between ten and fifteen thousand dollars in this plant. It is proposed to have the light plant in operation by October.
1910 was a busy year for the Flatonia community. A new electric light plant, ice plant, water works, cold storage, creamery, and sauerkraut packing plant kept this area thriving with businesses.
In 1924, The Beaumont Enterprise and Journal reported that the Flatonia Ice and Electric Light Company had secured a franchise to furnish light for Waelder, twelve miles from Flatonia. A high tension line will be installed and new machinery added to the plant, which at present is one of the best in the section.The Flatonia Fair, 1913 - 1936
By Judy Pate
The Giggle Path. Spidora—the spider with a girl’s head. The Twirl of Terror—sensational Smithson cycling the chasm. The Baby Show with prizes for the most beautiful baby and the heaviest baby. Parades, speakers, ballgames, goat-roping, horse races, fireworks, old fiddlers contests, and grand balls nightly—just a few of the numerous attractions to be found over the years at the Flatonia Fair.
The Flatonia Fair in its Glory Days—The “Twirl of Terror”.
Photo courtesy E. A. Arnim Archives & Museum.The idea that ultimately grew into a full-fledged fair was first born of a desire among the members of the Flatonia Herman Sons Lodge to create a public park. In July of 1912, fifty-four of the club’s members organized under a separate charter as the Hermann Sohns Park Verein (Herman Sons Park Association). Capital was raised through an initial stock offering of 200 shares at $10 each, with which the board of directors promptly purchased six acres for the park in the western part of Flatonia.
Next they set out to build a permanent multi-purpose hall on the park grounds. Over the years, a spacious two-story building would serve not only as the main fair exhibit hall, but as the site of countless meetings, picnics, dances, basketball games, graduation exercises and plays. If at first there were rumors that only members of the Herman Sons lodge would be permitted to use the facilities, they were quickly laid to rest as it was stressed that the park was meant for the enjoyment of the entire community.
Following a grand opening of the park in May of 1913, the stage was set for an extravagant 4th of July celebration that summer. This was dubbed Flatonia’s first “fair”, but by 1914 it became a fair indeed. Attended by none other than the current Texas Governor, the Honorable O. B. Colquist, the fair ran for four action-packed days and nights under the name of the “South Texas Industrial and Agricultural Fair.” By 1916 it had become simply “The Flatonia Fair” which continued to grow and add events for the next 20 years.
Of course there was always a full range of agricultural and industrial exhibits. Not only were there the usual calves, chickens, ducks, geese and hogs, there were prizes for best collie dog, “possum”, wolf and fox. The ladies were busy competing in divisions for best canned and baked goods, needlework, fine arts, and floral arrangements. For children there were prizes for best water colors, crayon drawings and penmanship.
Ball games were a perennial favorite with the crowds. The very first year, The Flatonia Argus reported that the baseball field was in poor condition, as it had only recently been scraped out of a pea pasture, and although Flatonia lost to Shiner it was said that the errors “couldn’t be blamed directly to this cause.” By the following year the baseball field had been improved, a grandstand built, and games were played daily. There were about 400 fans present for the final match between Schulenburg and Flatonia when “the visitors showed a disposition to squabble at every unfavorable decision”—but Schulenburg still won the game. As the dates shifted from mid-summer to September and October, football and basketball sometimes replaced baseball as the game of choice.
Railway fares were reduced within a 75 mile radius of Flatonia for the duration of the fair and it was well-attended by people from all over the region. Special days were designated, like “Old Settlers Day”, “German Day” and “Bohemian Day”. In 1914 one day was declared to be “Automobile Day” and various speakers addressed the crowds on such things as “Good Roads—Why and How,” “The Moral Effect of Good Roads,” and “Why We Must be Progressive.”
As the Great War raged in Europe, the 1916 fair opened with a patriotic red, white and blue parade through the town. An aviator wowed the crowds with his sensational “bird man” performances, looping the loop and flying upside down.
By 1918 the United States was well into its own share of the fight in the Great War and Flatonia dubbed its fair that year the “Liberty Fair”. Booth space was donated to the Red Cross and the 4th Liberty Loan, whereby an additional $250 was raised over the course of the fair. Ellington and Kelly Fields supplied a number of airplanes to perform “miraculous maneuvers” over the fairgrounds which managed to bring one of the ballgames to a halt as one flew directly over the playing field.
Closing out the decade, 1919 brought the “Victory Fair” as Americans celebrated the end of the war. Opening ceremonies included an address on “the greatest issue before the American people today—the Peace Treaty, including the League of Nations Covenant.” Military bands provided the daily concerts. In the “old relics” division of competition, the usual contest for the best collection of Indian arrows was replaced by that for the best collection of war relics from France.
Aerial View of the Flatonia Fair, circa 1919. Herman Sons Hall top, center. Photo by Walter Wotipka, Sr., courtesy E. A. Arnim Archives & Museum.
The Flatonia Fair continued to gain momentum through the 1920’s. Spectacular fireworks displays became a nightly feature. There were programs to honor old soldiers with Confederate Veterans Day and newly returned soldiers with American Legion Day. In 1923, air planes offered daily pleasure rides from the fair grounds. Radio concerts were broadcast in the main exhibit hall—“news of the world daily at the fair—everything that happens at the time when it happens.”
Even as the fair continued to grow, however, the seeds of its demise were already being sown. With misplaced confidence in the viability of the fair and unaware of the hard times ahead, the directors of the Fair Association took out sizeable loans to construct new permanent exhibit halls in the mid-1920s. As the economy was beginning its long slide into the Great Depression, money was suddenly in short supply everywhere. One attempt to raise money through an additional stock offering and another to sell its property to the City of Flatonia both met with failure. Attendance was down in 1935—no doubt potential fair-goers were feeling the pinch in their own pocketbooks. With the prevailing sentiment of “the show must go on,” the Centennial Fair of 1936 was held, but with bad luck continuing to pile on, two of the four days were rained out.
Though many still fondly hoped to celebrate the Silver Anniversary of the Flatonia Fair in 1937, the handwriting was on the wall. When the books were closed on the 1936 fair, expenditures had exceeded proceeds and the directors of the Fair Association concluded that they could not repay $8000 worth of loans and debts in the prevailing economic conditions. On March 5, 1937, all assets, including land and buildings, of the Fair Park were conveyed to its creditors. In short, the Association was bankrupt and the Flatonia Fair was no more.
The [Flatonia] Train Robbery
By Eugenia Reeves
Excerpts taken from the Gonzales Inquirer, June 25, 1887:
Last week Friday night, between 12:00 and 1:00 o‘clock, a train robbery was perpetrated on the east bound passenger train a mile and a half from Flatonia, Texas.
Two men boarded the engine as the train started from Flatonia. The engineer started to kick them off thinking they were tramps, but at the muzzle of two drawn pistols, he was quickly convinced he had made a mistake. They made him put on extra steam and stop over a trestle about a mile and a half east of Flatonia. Earlier, ten other robbers built a large fire next to the track and boarded and quickly went to work. The express messenger was hit on the head and robbed of $600.00. He secretly hid the bulk of the money before they reached him. The robbers went through the sleeper cars taking $600.00 in money and $1,000.00 in valuables and jewelry from the passengers.
After leaving the train, they mounted their horses and rode off in different directions. Posses were formed, but only three arrests were made and taken to Flatonia for identification. George Shoaf, a noted San Antonio gambler, was one of the bandits who helped in the robbery. He was arrested in San Antonio and jailed. Shoaf denied his connection with the robbery and said he could prove that he was playing poker in San Antonio.
Wells Fargo & Co. offered $1,000.00 reward for the capture and conviction of each one of the robbers. Upon the request from the Express Company, the Governor promised the State’s power to capture the robbers and added $500.00 for the capture and conviction of each of the robbers. The Southern Pacific Railroad also offered $250.00, and the United States Government added another $200.00 which totaled $1,950.00.
After reading the above article, Mike Buck from Giddings, TX added this very interesting bit of information.
The leader of the outlaw gang that committed the train robbery was my great-great grandfather Bill Whitley. He and Brock Cornett boarded the train and then forced the engineer to stop on the trestle."
The San Antonio Express and Houston Daily Post published articles in 1887 issues on the robbers, listing passengers and money and valuables taken. Mr. Buck’s great-great grandfather, Bill Whitley, also robbed a train at McNeil (Round Rock) prior to Flatonia, then went on to rob the First National Bank of Cisco and finally a train at Harwood (close to Gonzales and Waelder). He was later killed at Floresville by six U. S. Marshals after the Harwood hold-up.
Mr. Buck has his pistol, passed down to him by his grandfather, which was used in all of the robberies. Bill Whitley was only 24 years old at the end of his short career, which was typical of most outlaws of the Old West.
Credits go to The Gonzales Inquirer, Lone Star Diary and Mike Buck.
A Texas-Montana Romance [for one of the Flatonia Train Robbers]
by Connie F. Sneed
From the Tacoma Daily News, page 7, 24 Feb 1893:
She Loves Her Lover, Though He Is A Train Robber
He reformed, is now a model prisoner, and she will wed him when his term expires.
San Antonio, Tex., Feb. 23 - Bud Powell, alias Charles Thompson, who pleaded guilty before Judge Maxey of the Federal Court at Austin yesterday to the charge of train robbery, has been confined in jail here during the past six months.
He, with five others of the most desperate men of Southwest Texas, held up a Southern pacific train near Flatonia, east of here, in 1887, robbing the Wells-Fargo Express of $35,000, besides securing a large amount of money and valuables from the passengers. Four of the robbers have since been killed while resisting arrest.
The only one of them yet sentenced for the crime is “Bill” Reeves, who is serving a life sentence in the Detroit penitentiary. Powell proceeded immediately to Montana after the robbery, gambling all of his ill-gotten wealth away on the journey. Arriving at Helena, he determined to better his ways. He entered a business college there, from which he was graduated with honors. He then joined the church and became an active religious worker.
Three years ago, he became superintendent of an extensive ranch near Border City, Montana. He went under the name of Charles Thompson and was the accepted suitor of the daughter of the owner of the ranch of which he was superintendent. A few days before the date of his proposed marriage, United States Marshall Frick got on his trail and arrested him. That was six months ago.
Powell has been a model prisoner since his confinement here and says he is determined to lead a Christian life. The wealthy ranchman’s daughter to whom he is betrothed has remained true to the prisoner, and they have corresponded regularly. They are to be married as soon as Powell’s term in the penitentiary is completed. Sentence is to be passed on the prisoner next Saturday. It is expected he will get off easy.
The Flood In Texas
by Connie F. Sneed
5 August 1869 Farmer’s Cabinet Paper:
The Flood in Texas - A correspondent writing from La Grange, Fayette County, Texas, gives an account of the recent disastrous flood on the Colorado River, by which the town of La Grange and the surrounding country were completely submerged. The writer says:
"Great crowds of women and children stood at the water’s edge, and saw their homes filled by the flood, and many of them swept away or turned over where they stood. Saturday found the town deluged, for on the square end in every store stood four or five feet of water. It was wholly deserted, and all the inhabitants had fled to the high grounds and hills in the northern and northeastern suburbs. Quantities of provisions were destroyed in the stores. At Chalk Bluffs, four miles above, on the river bank, the scene was terrible. For fifteen miles, as far as the eye could reach to the north, west, and south, the country was one unbroken sheet of water. Here and there, in the distance, among the clumps of oaks, might be seen the roofs of houses but yesterday occupied by prosperous planters, now filled by waters. Nearer, above and below, on to the south and eastward, the zigzag track of the river was marked by the rush of oaks and cottonwoods that had stood for years. Side by side with these, in wild confusion, floated houses and dead cattle.”
When the flood subsided houses were found turned over or swung across the streets, fences swept away, boxes, furniture and small houses scattered about the streets, and everything in confusion, while the slimy mud brought in by the flood covered the walls and floors of the dwellings and stores. The damage to the town is at least $100,000, while the injury to crops and the country is estimated at millions. The overflow has never been equaled in the Colorado within the history of Texas.
Flood of 1913
by Edward F. JaneckaFloods have always been a problem along the Colorado. The most notable ones were the floods of 1869 and 1913. The flood of 1869 covered the entire square in La Grange. There is a permanent line marking the height of this flood between Prause's Meat Market and Man's D&Z Shop on Travis Street. The flood of 1913 missed the height of the 1869 flood by one inch but was considered more damaging. Newspaper reports from the Houston Post and the La Grange Journal tell of the horrendous problems that faced Fayette County and the people of La Grange.
December 4, 1913 The La Grange Journal reports:
"Early in the day (Thursday), La Grange residents living in the "flats" were packing up to due to a report from C. J. Von Rosenberg of Austin about the expected large rise of the Colorado River. The water rose about 20 inches an hour and by 11 a.m. was running down Water St. and crossing Colorado St. At 3:30 p.m. houses began washing away and the water was up to the I.X.L Livery stable (behind 103 N. Main), one block from the square. Rain continued to fall and at 7 p.m. water was on the square. Fifty people sought refuge in the courthouse where the water rose until 6 a.m. on the 5th, held for about an hour, and then began falling. The height of the flood was 4 feet on the Courthouse Square and nearly 3/4 of La Grange was under water. Water had reached as far as the stoop of the Opera House located on the corner of Colorado & Franklin Streets. By Friday midnight, the waters had receded to the Wm. McKinney residence, one block below the square westward".
"On the West Side of Rabb's Prairie is a hill covering about 25 to 35 acres (Indian Hill). During the flood, 225 people and 300 head of stock sought refuge there. Mr. Janacek stated that his house on the hill was only 135 yards from the river and 115 people were in his house. Early in the morning, the hill was surrounded by water—to the south and north 2 miles of water, to the east 1-1/2 miles, and he could not tell how many miles to the west. By 10:00 a.m. the little hill looked like a small island in a vast sea. The water did not recede until December 8th".
On December 5th the river reached a stage of 56 feet. The public square was covered with 4 feet of water. The Houston Post reported: "Most of the houses in the flat in the western part of the town (La Grange) have floated away on account of the strong current. No one has been able to venture out to ascertain what homes remain. Last evening two Negroes clinging to logs were seen floating down in the main stream. They called for help but no relief could be given. This afternoon the dead bodies of three Mexicans and two white men floated quickly through the streets and disappeared. No lives have been lost here and all refugees are being cared for in homes in the northern part of town. Much live stock, it is thought, has perished below here, and it is feared that many farmers living in Rabb's Prairie are marooned and suffering. During the night it rained and added to the gloominess of the situation". Disorder began to prevail in the afternoon. A mass meeting was held at the school building and a vigorous action plan was drafted to handle the situation in a systematic and energetic way. Police, saloon, health, labor and relief committees were named. If necessary saloons would close until normal conditions returned. The accessible streets were being patrolled and notice was given that all persons out after 10 o'clock without reasonable excuse would be locked up in the county jail.
Sonja Fojtik
Poet, Teacher, Musician
by Helen Trnovsky MikusSonja Fojtik was born in Lufkin, Texas on December 16, 1937, the daughter of Dr. Joseph and Florence (Kaderka) Fojtik. At the age of three, she could read, write, and play the piano and started composing poetry at the age of five. When she was eight, her poems, "Chris and Lena" and "My Kitten", were published in the National Children's magazines, Wee Wisdom and Story Parade. Two years later, she was one of eight national first place winners in the Christmas carol contest, sponsored by Collier's Magazine. Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians played her carol over the NBC network, in December of 1948.
While attending Stephen F. Austin State College, she was a member of Alpha Chi and Kappa Delta Pi. In 1958, she received her Bachelor of Arts degree. In 1960, she began teaching Spanish, German and French at S.F.A.S.C. She also spoke Czech, Russian, and Danish. After one year of teaching, she resigned, and moved to her parent's home in Fayetteville. There, she began working towards a Masters of Arts Degree, with her thesis being on Southwestern Poetry.
Sonja was equally gifted as a musician and declined an offer to perform as a pianist with a worldwide symphony tour. She chose to remain with her parents on their farm near Fayetteville.
She was a member of th American Poetry League, and listed as a poet and a musician in the Worlds's Who's Who of Poetry.
While living in Fayetteville, she was administrative assistant to Mrs. Lilith Lorraine, Director of Avalon Foundation, and later became the editor's assistant to Vernon Payne, Editor of Cyclo Flame a Poetry magazine. She produced many poems that were published in such diverse publications as the Brenham Banner Press and the Anthology of American Poetry.
In her late twenties, Sonja developed a heart condition, which should have slowed her life style. But her love of poetry drove her to keep traveling and promoting the Poetry Society of Texas. On January 10, 1968, Sonja died of a heart attack at her home in Fayetteville.
Caleb Forshey
by Gary E. McKeeThe Texas Military Institute in Rutersville was formed in 1856 from the Rutersville College founded in 1840. The superintendent of TMI was a unique man named Caleb Goldsmith Forshey.
Forshey was born in 1812, in Pennsylvania and attended college and the West Point Military Academy. He was the professor of mathematics and civil engineering in Mississippi for two years before taking various engineering jobs on the Mississippi River. He developed one of the first hydrological stations that measured river flow for the government. In 1853, Forshey moved to Texas to become the chief design engineer for a railroad where he designed the first bridge that connected Galveston Island to the mainland. In 1855, he founded the Texas Military Institute in Galveston.
In his diary, he mentions that a group of men representing Rutersville College asked his views on moving TMI to Rutersville. Forshey was agreeable, as his diary noted: "This day I have completed and signed a contract with the Board of Trustees of Rutersville College, engaging to lease that institution for 7 years and remove my school thither..."
Three months into the new term at TMI of Rutersville, Forshey noted he had 58 cadets and "we have made such progress in study as is to me very satisfactory."
In October of 1858, Forshey noted that German, Zoology, Roads and Railroads, and Mechanics have been added to the curriculum and that the cadets had cornbread, cold beef, peach preserves, fresh butter, coffee and water for supper.
Discipline at the school was strict. Forshey wrote that "Cadet Goodman was found absent from Quarters between tattoo and reveille and is hereby sentenced to compulsory resignation without honorable discharge."
Astrology was another passion of Forshey and in 1859, a magnificent astral display was seen across the state of Texas that Forshey sketched and documented. His findings help confirm the existence of solar flares. His cadets also did astral mapping, which was unheard of in the "wilds of Texas." Plant biology was another interest and while at Rutersville he and his cadets collected specimens for the Smithsonian Institute.
With the coming of the Civil War in 1861, Forshey sent his cadets off to war, closed TMI, and joined the Engineering Corps of the Confederacy. His design of the "cotton clads" steamboats enabled the recapture of Galveston from the Union. The numerous forts along the Texas coast were also the work of Forshey along with writing three popular Civil War songs.
After the war, Forshey helped design railroad systems and the development of Galveston Bay for commercial use. Caleb Forshey left behind a legacy in Texas when he passed away in 1881.
Furniture Making in Fayette County
by Arnold RombergEarly settlers in Fayette County had to be self-sufficient in many ways. Distances, the difficulties of travel and communication, and the modest availability of cash all limited the import of manufactured products. In the later decades of the 19th century, the arrival of the railroad and the growth of towns led to an increasing amount of trade. Nevertheless, in rural areas such as Fayette County, most people bought only what they couldn't grow, make or trade for.
Texas Furniture - The Cabinet Makers and Their Work 1840-1880, by Lonn Taylor and David Warren (copy in the Fayette Public Library) says that the lower Brazos-Colorado area was one of the centers of German cabinetmakers.
Bernhard Romberg, born in Germany in 1841, came to Texas with his parents and five siblings in 1847. The family settled first on a farm on the San Bernard River, near Cat Spring, but five years later moved to better land on the Navidad in Fayette County.
Bernhard probably learned basic woodworking from his father. By his late twenties he was well established as a furniture maker. Taylor and Warren refer to a "windmill-powered chair factory", but Bernard would probably have been amused to hear it called a factory. He probably called it his workshop. Many things were made there besides chairs, and probably many besides furniture. Surviving products of the workshop on the Navidad include a high chair belonging to the Tiedt family in Fayette County and a high secretary, with drawers, a cabinet, and a pull-down desktop.
He did develop a personal style. His page in Texas Furniture shows a rawhide-bottomed chair, one of a set that was a wedding present to his youngest brother, Julius. The chair, made of mulberry wood, has a decorative top slat. His style is recognizable by Texas furniture experts - chairs have been recently offered for sale identified as Romberg chairs, based on minor characteristics. Many of his descendants have one or more of his chairs that have been handed down in the family, so he must have produced a considerable quantity of them over his working life, and provided many of them to relatives in addition to selling them.
The windmill that supplied the motive power for the workshop was a local landmark. It was about sixty feet high, with large canvas sails, more like a European windmill than the windmills still seen around the countryside. Wind power drove chair leg lathes and a large circular saw. The blade was the only metal part of the saw.
German Settlers in Fayette County
by Bob HeinsohnFriedrich Ernst and Charles Fordtran, who settled in Austin's Colony, promoted the German settlements of south central Texas, including Fayette County. Ernst founded the town of Industry in 1838. Responding to their favorable letters about Texas, hundreds of German immigrants seeking personal, political and religious liberties came to Austin's Colony, spilling over in to eastern Fayette County before it was organized. Some of the early German families who arrived in the Industry/Cat Spring area included Ludwig von Roeder, F. W. Grassmeyer, Karl and Marcus Amsler, Robert and Louis Kleberg, Jacob Wolters and Joseph Biegel, who founded Biegel's Settlement in Fayette County in 1832. The town of Biegel, which was the first German settlement in the county and the second in the state, was not laid out until several years later. The first German landowner in Fayette County was F. W. Grassmeyer, who was granted a league of land in 1831, one fourth of which was in Fayette County.
Some of the early German settlers fought in the battle for Texas Independence in 1836. They included Joseph Ehlinger, Christian Wertzner, Joseph Biegel, F. W. Grassmeyer and others. They believed in having their freedoms, so were willing to fight for their new homeland.
By 1837, houses were beginning to be built on the eastern bank of the Colorado River on John H. Moore's property, which would become the City of La Grange. When a group of German immigrants, who wanted to settle in Bexar County, could not cross the river due to high water, Moore offered them lots in the city. They accepted, so from that time the German character has been preserved in the city.
In 1842, the Adelsverein or Society for the Protection of German Immigrants was organized by a group of German noblemen. A representative of the society, Count Boos-Waldeck, bought the W. H. Jack League in eastern Fayette County in 1843. His plantation was named Nassau. A settlement grew up around the plantation.
The earliest settlers who came with the Adelsverein arrived in the port of Indianola. Several thousand were headed for New Braunfels and Fredericksburg. However, due to bad weather, sickness and a lack of food, many died. Also, the Adelsverein was almost bankrupt. Other immigrants who arrived later in Galveston heard about the situation and changed their plans, many choosing to settle in Fayette County.
One of the most prominent immigrants who settled near La Grange was Heinrich L. Kreische. The 600 acres of land that he bought on the Bluff overlooked the growing town of La Grange and the Colorado River. Being a skilled stonemason, he not only built his three-story home, but also the third courthouse in La Grange, the jail, several businesses and homes, and a brewery near his home that he and his family operated. By the 1870's, his brewery was the third largest in the state. He also operated a ferry across the river, so his beer could be sold in local saloons, including his own. He and his wife had six children, none of whom ever married.
The German immigrants of Fayette County were mainly Lutheran. German Lutherans predominantly settled La Grange, Biegel, Round Top and Rutersville. The most successful effort of the early Lutherans to establish a congregation was in Round Top, where Rev. Adam Neuthard taught school from 1861-1873 and preached for forty years. There were some German Catholics, mostly from Westphalia, who settled in the Ross Prairie. Live Oak Hill and High Hill areas.
Since Germans love to sing and dance, they organized a number of singing societies in the county. They also founded several bands, including the Schumann Band from Waldeck, the Alber's Band, and later Blume's Orchestra and the Lindemann Band. They organized shooting clubs called "Schuetzenverein" and the "Turnverein", which promoted comradeship and physical fitness. Fraternal organizations were popular in German communities. After the Sons of Hermann organization was founded in 1860, there were eight lodges in Fayette County, most of them over 100 years old.
Germans have contributed much to the growth and development of Fayette County. Their efficient methods of farming have helped with the economy. Besides farmers, there were tradesmen, craftsmen, merchants, physicians, lawyers, ministers, teachers and city and county officials. There were also Germans in Fayette County who were elected to the State Legislature, such as A. E. Falke, John C. Speckels, and Robert Zapp.
The German language is still being taught in our schools. La Grange has a German Sister City and a chapter of the Texas German Society. The German influence can still be seen throughout the county in architectural styles, road signs, business names and festivals.
Fredrich W. Grasmeyer
by Larry K RipperFredrich William Grasmeyer was one the first Europeans immigrating to Stephen F. Austin's Colony. From Austin's Register of Families: "F. W. Grasmeyer, single man, age 30, trader, no slaves, origin Germany, oath taken March 1831". Grasmeyer's land grant was south of and adjoining the Colorado River, just east of present day Smithville. For a time he operated a ferry, a river landing, and cotton gin at that location.
On December 14, 1837, President Houston signed a bill creating Fayette County, part of which had been in the Mexican Municipality of Mina. Grasmeyer's Ferry was chosen as the boundary dividing Bastrop and Fayette counties and "running from there in a north easterly direction at right angles with the general course of the River Colorado, to the divide between the water of the Colorado and Brazos, and southwesterly to the head of the Lavaca"—
In the early 1850s Grasmeyer moved to La Grange, by then a growing financial center. Over the next 30 years he would be involved in several businesses, investment ventures, and many real estate deals. He was also a partner in "Oro y Plata", a New Mexico silver mine.
Today, one of his most visible contributions to La Grange is the old Beer Office and Bottling Company Building at 114 South Main. Grasmeyer commissioned German-Texan stonemasons to construct this Italianate style commercial building in 1865. This structure served as a hotel until 1893, when it became a regional sales office for a brewery. Later it would be used to house a soft drink bottling operation, followed by a succession of other businesses. At the time of his death, in 1887, Grasmeyer had substantial holdings throughout central Texas. He left $1,200 and his extensive personal library to start a library association in La Grange. His instructions: "Only standard works of scientific literature and literature are to be purchased and not 'current books' of inferior value. No sectarian literature will be bought". Several outstanding loans were held by Grasmeyer's estate, one owed by Elizabeth Ney, the famous artist whose work stands in the Texas Capital today. Her note was for $325, 8% interest, unsecured.
Today Fredrich Grasmeyer's imposing monument stands in the west-end of the old La Grange City Cemetery. Next to it is one belonging to his niece, Rosamanda Migurski and her husband, whom Fredrich had brought over from Odessa, Russia. Her rich uncle also left them the silver mine.
For an educated man looking for adventure in the mid-1800s, Texas was the place to be. And for Thomas Green, if the opportunity presented itself, he would be there. This applied not only to the Texas Revolution, but also to the Mexican-American War, and the Civil War. Wherever there was conflict, Thomas Green led the way. But he should not be remembered solely for his role in nearly every war during his lifetime, but also for his role in our local and state politics.
During World War II, many lives were lost on land, sea and in the air. This is the story of one navy yeoman who didn’t come home. Daniel J. Gully was born on September 9, 1917 in Fayetteville, Texas. He was a graduate of Fayetteville High School. In 1941 he entered the navy where he trained in San Diego and served in Hawaii, Java, China, the Philippines and Australia. He was stationed aboard the submarine, the U.S.S. Harder. The USS Harder (SS-257), a 
In 1902 historian Frank Lotto described Augustine Haidusek like this: "He possesses a wonderful perseverance and indefatigable energy; hence his efforts have been crowned with success; is of strong will power, but not obstinate---and of decided views on all questions which he never hesitates to express if requested to do so; but generally keeps his own counsel, knows what he wants and how to obtain it; is very liberal, generous and always ready to help the needy. Has many warm friends, but also some bitter enemies. May be pronounced a self-made man. Speaks English, German and Bohemian."
Texas pioneered the concept and Fayette County can boast two “firsts” in highway beautification efforts—the first roadside park and the first to scatter wildflower seeds along the highway roadsides.
Fayette County has had a jail since July, 1838, only eight months after the county was officially created. It has had a colorful history, which includes two hangings and stories about ghosts of past inmates whose presence have been heard and felt by a number of employees throughout the years.
The men and women who came with and followed Stephen F. Austin into early Texas revealed an uncommon ambition and worth. One who came to this virgin area of Eastern Fayette County was John Rice Jones, Jr. He was the son of Judge John Rice Jones and Mary Barger. John Jones, Jr. and Stephen F. Austin were boyhood friends in Missouri, where their fathers were partners in a lead-mining operation. He came to Texas in 1831.
