Flatonia, Texas

That small wooden box sitting in the Rail Park beside the Southern Pacific tracks is a calaboose, which is what a Texas town called its jail before it could afford a real one. The Flatonia Argus's neighbor up the road,…

In 1886, when Flatonia was barely a decade old, merchant E. A. Arnim, Sr. and partner Jonathan Lane opened the Arnim & Lane Mercantile on North Main Street, a frontier general store stocking everything a railroad town…

Stand on Main Street in Flatonia and notice something most Texas towns hid long ago: the railroad runs straight through the middle of everything. The Flatonia Commercial Historic District, listed on the National…

Flatonia carries a German merchant's name, but the surrounding countryside is deeply Czech, and you can hear it in the place names and taste it in the kolaches. Beginning in the 1870s, Bohemian and Moravian immigrants…

You're cruising through Flatonia, and right here is a building that served a dual purpose you don't see every day. Back in 1896, Dr. George Washington Allen founded this town's hospital. Just a year later, this very…

The brick building at 120 East South Main has been entertaining Flatonia, on and off, for well over a century. It went up in 1879 as the Foster Building, one of the oldest brick structures in town, and in 1913 became a…

Star and Wreath Fought for Texas Independence at Gonzales, Siege of Bexar and San Jacinto. Erected by the State of Texas, 1962

You're driving past the Wheeler Building in Flatonia, a sturdy brick structure built in 1907. Notice the Romanesque Revival influences in its design, like the arched windows and that cool recessed corner entrance. This…

Flatonia went 10-0 in the 1988 regular season and rolled through the Class 1A playoffs — Agua Dulce 57-0, D'Hanis 33-7, Thrall 35-8 — before surviving Bartlett 25-24 in the quarterfinals and shutting out Ladonia's…

Flatonia's football team has been to a state final and never won it. The baseball team just went out and won two in a row. The Bulldogs took the UIL state baseball championship in 2015, and then did the much harder…

Flatonia's 2016 season is a lesson in ignoring the scoreboard until it counts. The Bulldogs lost their first five games, all non-district, then won District 15-2A Division II at 5-0 — beating Louise 14-6, Runge 43-0,…

After an opening loss to Hallettsville, Flatonia won eight straight games in 2022, clinching the district championship — its first since 2016 — with a 49-17 win at Holland on November 4. Quarterback Fidel Venegas threw…

Born on February 22, 1820, in Bremen, Germany, F.W. Flato immigrated to Texas in 1846 and settled in Austin County. Flato and his wife, Sophia Welhausen, moved to southwestern Fayette County by 1866 where they operated…

Look at a map of Flatonia, and you'll see a perfect cross right in its center. That's not a coincidence; it's the town's reason for being. This is one of the few places in Texas where two major, historically significant…

On the fifteenth of June, 1887, a gang of train robbers met at night in the graveyard at Flatonia and worked the whole thing out around a campfire. Three days later they did it. Brack Cornett and a man named Whitley…

How do you celebrate being a Texas town with deep Czech roots? In Flatonia, you invent a festival with a name that honors both. Welcome to Czhilispiel. That's C-Z-H-I-L-I-S-P-I-E-L. The name is a clever pun, combining…

The heart of Flatonia is a precise piece of 19th-century civil engineering known as a 'diamond crossing.' When the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway arrived in 1887, it had to cross the existing east-west Southern…

The abandoned Flatonia Railroad Tower, in use from 1902 to 1996, was one of Texas' longest standing, manually operated railroad switching towers with north-south and east-west cross rails. The tower was damaged in an…

The first Flatonia wasn't here. It sat about a mile southeast, a small settlement with a post office since 1870. Then, in the early 1870s, surveyors for the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway ran their line…

In 1854, Matej (Matthias) Novak (1818-1896), his four children and brother Anton Novak moved to the area and settled along Mulberry Creek in what was then a frontier area known as Hottentot. Other Czech Catholic…

Admire the artistry of Gottfried Flury in this stunning church, a landmark of Praha, Texas.St. Mary's Church of the Assumption was built in 1895 here in Praha. It's a beautiful example of the area's Czech heritage.The…

You're driving past the site where Jacob Castleman once stood. He was a soldier who fought for Texas independence and, incredibly, was a veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto. Imagine the sights and sounds of that…

On May eighteenth, nineteen thirty seven, a Texas highway minute order gave the name Veterans of Foreign Wars Memorial Highway to a chain of roads. The route started at the New Mexico state line at Texline and ran to…

You're driving past the site of St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Rockdale. Services for Episcopalians here started way back in 1875, meeting in a local store that also hosted other faiths. Bishop Alexander Gregg…

You're driving through Lavaca County, heading past the site of the Novohrad School. For decades, this place offered education to children in the rural Bohemian community of Novohrad. Established in 1882, the first…

You're driving past Salem Memorial Cemetery, established in 1870. It was recognized as a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2006.

You're driving past Freyburg Methodist Church. Services began in the late 1860s, with this sanctuary built in 1879. It's a fine example of an open Gothic style church, and it still serves the community today.

You're driving past the Freyburg United Methodist Church Cemetery, established in 1880. It was recognized as a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2005.

You're driving past Colony Cemetery, the final resting place for many of the area's early settlers. This community, known as Colony, was founded in the 1870s by folks from Mississippi. In 1876, John and Margaret Young…

You're driving past Pin Oak Cemetery, a final resting place with roots stretching back to the Republic of Texas. The very first burials here, though unmarked, were for two soldiers who died in 1842 after the Battle of…

You're driving past the SPJST Velehrad Cemetery near Hallettsville. This burial ground was established by Czech immigrants from Moravia, who settled the Velehrad community. Filip Bucek, a Czech resident, dreamed of a…

Keep your eyes peeled as you drive through La Grange. You're passing the site of a veteran of the Texas Revolution, William Gorham. Gorham served in the Texas Army from 1835 to 1836, and he fought in the decisive Battle…

You're driving through Velehrad, a community founded by Czech immigrants in the 1850s. They named it for a Czech city, meaning 'Big Castle.' From the start, these settlers prioritized education, holding classes in their…

You're driving past the site of the old Baursville School, a testament to the early Czech and German settlers in this area. Back in 1881, August and Emilie Baur donated land for a community school. Initially,…

You're driving through Moulton, a town with roots stretching back to the early 1850s. Originally founded a couple of miles northwest, its story shifted dramatically in 1887. That's when the San Antonio and Aransas Pass…

You're driving past the historic Moore building in Moulton! This place honors brothers Sam and Will Moore, who funded half the cost of building this school, donating the land too. The community matched their generosity.…

You're driving through Moulton, Texas, right where General Sam Houston and the Texas Army made camp back on March 15th, 1836. They were on the move, retreating from Gonzales toward the Brazos River during the Texas…

You're driving past Moulton, Texas, where St. Joseph's Catholic Church has been a cornerstone for over a century. Imagine this: it's 1888. A small frame church is built here, serving a community of German and Czech…

You're driving past the site of a bell that rang through history in Moulton. Opened in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1901</say-as>, this bell marked the school day at the local institute. But its civic duties…

You're driving past the birthplace of Dr. Hugo J. Strieder, a man who knew he'd be a doctor from childhood. He returned to Moulton after medical school, serving as the area's country doctor, even opening his own clinic…

You're passing through Moulton, the town that owes its start to a railroad and a hotel. Back in 1887, brothers Samuel and William Moore granted land for the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad. The very next year, in…

You're driving through Moulton, Lavaca County, where German Lutheran settlers established a new life. As early as the 1870s, circuit-riding pastors traveled to serve these pioneers. In March 1902, worshipers gathered to…

You're driving past the site of Old Moulton, the original town center. It was officially established in 1856 with its first postmaster, James Walker. But Old Moulton really hit its stride in 1874, becoming famous…

This one comes from a listener, not from a book, so take it as somebody's family memory rather than a documented fact. Their people went through Moulton High School in the classes of 1948 and 1950, and their mother was…

You're driving past the site of Old Moulton Baptist Church. Organized in 1873 by 25 former members of the Live Oak Church, this building went up fast, between 1873 and 1874. The cornerstone was laid on January 31st,…

You're passing the Texas Historical Commission marker for Adolph Hofner in Moulton, Lavaca County, where he was born on June 8, 1916. Hofner is a pioneer of western swing who blended country, blues and jazz with the…

Adolph Hofner was born in Moulton in 1916 and became an early pioneer of the musical genre called western swing, popular in the late 1940s and 1950s. His musical repertoire encompassed western swing, pop, blues,…

You're driving through Moulton, home to Lodge No. 298 of the Freemasons, chartered way back in 1867. This lodge has a history of sharing, starting with its first building in 1874, which it shared with the Live Oak…

The Sam and Will Moore Institute went up here in 1901, paid for by two brothers who put up the money and a town that matched it. What survives from it is the bell, and the bell did more than one job. It rang the school…

One of Moulton's most remarkable exports wasn't cotton, it was a man with a paintbrush and a chemist's stubbornness. Gottfried Flury was a Swiss-born artist who made his home here in Moulton, and his work survives a…

You're rolling into a town that physically picked up and moved. The first Moulton sat about two miles northwest of here, and got its post office back in 1855. Locals called it the Queen of the Prairies for the rich…

The farmland spreading out around you is the whole reason Moulton exists. In the 1890s waves of Czech and German immigrants poured into this corner of Lavaca County, drawn by good, cheap prairie soil that many of them…

Pull in hungry at 101 East Moore Avenue, because Kloesel's Steakhouse and Bar is the heart of eating out in Moulton. Harvey and Diana Kloesel opened on July 1, 1970, in a tiny rented cafe that seated just 32 people,…

On this corner, east of where the railroad tracks ran, the Moore family put up Moulton's grandest building in 1888. Samuel Moore had granted right-of-way across his land so the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway could…

You're driving past the site where Isaac D. Hamilton once lived. He arrived in Texas from Alabama in January of 1836, just in time to join Captain Jack Shackelford's Red Rover Company. He was part of Colonel Fannin's…

By the time you'd have visited Moulton in 1914, this little depot town was punching well above its weight. It had Lutheran and Catholic churches, a bank, telephone service, an opera house for traveling shows and local…

You're driving past the Old Moulton Cemetery. While some folks whisper about even older graves, the earliest one we can point to here is Louisa Lattimer, who died way back in 1857. This place holds the stories of Lavaca…

Imagine this: it's 1887, and you live in a small but established town called Moulton, settled back in the 1850s. One day you hear that the new railroad — the economic lifeline of the 19th century — is coming through the…

Catherine Prajer was born in Bohemia in October of 1835, the year before San Jacinto, and she grew up hearing about Texas from relatives who had gone. She wanted to come her whole childhood. She did not get here until…

There is a 1936 centennial marker at the east end of Bobkat Street that records one night. On the fifteenth of March, 1836, the army of Texas camped at this spot under Sam Houston. Fix where that sits in the story. The…

Isaac D. Hamilton, soldier in the Texas Revolution , was a native of Courtland, Alabama, the son of Francis and Mary Hamilton. In 1835 he joined John Shackelford 's company of Red Rovers to fight for the independence of…

The story of Moulton’s founding is a classic Texas drama about the power of the railroad. The original settlement, now called 'Old Moulton,' was actually a couple of miles southwest of where you are now. It was doing…

Moulton doesn't have one of the famous Painted Churches - but it had the man who painted them. Gottfried Flury was a Swiss-born decorative artist who lived right here, and a few miles from town, inside St. Mary's Church…

The location of Moulton is a direct result of nineteenth-century engineering and economics. When the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway planned its route in the 1880s, surveyors didn't just follow the old wagon roads.…

When the Aransas Pass railway came through in the winter of 1886 and 1887, Ed Boehm came to Moulton and built the first business house in the town. General merchandise, with a saloon in the building next door. At that…

Doctor William H. Lancaster came to Moulton in 1887 and was among the very first to locate here, and he did something most town doctors do not. He helped survey the town. Then he bought the first lot that was ever sold…

In 1913 Doctor John G. Guenther founded the Moulton Hospital and ran it himself. Sit with that for a second. Not a clinic, not an office with a back room. A hospital, in a Blackland Prairie farm town, in the year before…

In the city park off Lancaster Street there is an oak log cabin with an unusual life story. Orrin Winters, a Tennessean, built it as two rooms near the Lavaca River around 1853 and lived in it twenty years. Around 1902,…

Before the railroad moved this town, Old Moulton had something that got it known across Texas, and it was a school. Melvin H. Allis and his wife Thankful ran the Moulton Institute from 1874 until the 1890s, and by every…

In August of 1894 the Shiner Gazette announced it would run a sketch of a prominent Moulton man every week, and the one they led with was Christian Meinhard Kotzebue. Born in Denmark in 1840, in America at fourteen,…

Frederich Fehrenkamp arrived in Moulton when the town had two mercantile establishments. Boehm's store, and the firm of Jackson and Company. That is the whole retail economy. It is worth having because it independently…

You're driving through South Texas, maybe near Moulton, where Adolph Hofner was born in 1916. He grew up speaking Czech, but he became a pioneer of western swing music, earning the nickname the 'Bing Crosby of Country.'…

You're driving through Central Texas, and right here is Moulton, the birthplace of Armin Puck. Puck was a decorated officer who served with the legendary Thirty-sixth Infantry Division. He saw action across North Africa…

The long building along the railroad here is older than it looks and bigger than it needs to be, and both of those facts are the same story. A Moulton businessman named F. T. Fehrenkamp put it up in 1913, three hundred…

If you happen to be driving through Moulton during the summer, you might just catch the town's biggest celebration: the Town and Country Jamboree. For over 50 years, this festival has been the heartbeat of the…

You're driving through Moulton, in Lavaca County, where in 1874, a remarkable school called the Moulton Male and Female Institute opened its doors. Led by M. H. Allis, a Civil War veteran and former college president,…

You're driving through Lavaca County, passing the site of the Cotton Grove Dance Floor and Store. After World War II, returning soldiers and the local German and Czech descendants needed a place to gather. From 1946 to…

You're driving past Moulton's World War II Observation Tower. Prior to the widespread use of radar, elevated observation towers placed along the coastline provided early warning against axis air attack during World War…

You're driving past the site of Komensky School, a testament to the dedication of Czech and German immigrants in the Woods Prairie settlement. In 1895, they pooled their resources to build this community school, naming…

You're driving past the site of St. Paul's African Methodist Episcopal Church in Moulton. Founded in the wake of emancipation, it began serving the black population in 1867. The church also served as the community's…

You're driving through Moulton, and right here is a piece of pioneer history. This cabin started life around 1853, built by Orrin L. Winters, a Tennessee native who settled near the Lavaca River. He lived in this…

If you happen through Moulton in late July, the whole town is at the city park for the Town and Country Jamboree, and it has been that way since 1962. What started as a small-town summer celebration has run for more…

You're passing Moulton City Park, home each July to the Moulton Town and Country Jamboree. For generations, this three-day weekend has drawn crowds of polka fans alongside country music lovers, with bands like the…

You're driving through Muldoon, a community with roots stretching back to the 1830s. This town owes its name and much of its early land to Father Miguel Muldoon, an Irish priest educated in Spain. He met Stephen F.…

You're driving through Muldoon, a place settled in the 1830s. This cemetery, established in 1871, holds the stories of early pioneers, Civil War and Revolution veterans, and even a stonemason who quarried the famous…

You're driving past the resting place of James Carrel Bell, a man who fought for Texas independence and then again in the Civil War. Born in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1820</say-as>, Bell was a young soldier…

You're driving past the Muldoon area, and right here is the story of Simon Peter Ford. Born in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1816</say-as>, he arrived in Texas way back in <say-as interpret-as="date"…

On a June morning in 1880 three men rode out to gather up stray cattle, butcher them and sell the meat to the shops at Flatonia and Schulenburg. Passing the Ragsdale place, about a mile west of Moravia, they helped…

You're driving through Moravia, a community founded by Czech immigrants who named it after their homeland. Look to your right – this spot on the marker once held a unique building. In 1889, Ignac Jalufka built a…

You're driving through Lavaca County, where Czech and German immigrants carved out new lives in the 1870s. Right around here was the heart of Moravia, a Czech farming community. The very first school? It was a simple…

You're driving past SPJST Moravia Cemetery. IMMIGRANTS FROM NORTHEASTERN MORAVIA (CURRENT CZECH REPUBLIC) SETTLED IN THE AREA PRESENTLY KNOWN AS MORAVIA, TEXAS. MORAVIA WAS FOUNDED BY JAKUB HOLLUB AND HIS SON-IN-LAW…

You're driving past a piece of Texas engineering history! This is the Bedstead Truss Bridge, built way back in 1888 by the King Iron Bridge Company. For decades, this 60-foot iron marvel was a vital link, connecting…

You're driving past the site of the former Branecky School. Area residents built this frame school here in the mid-1930s, replacing an older building. It served the community until 1950, when it was annexed by the…

Prepare to be amazed by the Nativity of Mary, Blessed Virgin Catholic Church, a true architectural gem rising from the Texas countryside. This stunning church, located in High Hill, wasn't just thrown together; it was…

You're driving past the Bunting Family Cemetery, established in 1873. It was recognized as a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2004.

You're driving past Bermuda Valley Farm, and just off to your left, about fifty yards, is the site of a famous race track. It was laid out in 1889 by Dr. I.E. Clark, a physician and state senator who owned this land. He…

You're driving past the site of Creuzbaur's Battery, known as 'The Big Guns of Fayette.' Organized in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1861</say-as> by a former Prussian officer, this Confederate artillery unit of…

You're driving past the Lyons Family Cemetery near Schulenburg. James Lyons, originally from New York, brought his family to Texas way back in 1820. Life on the Texas frontier was tough. On October 15th, 1837, while…

You're driving past the area where William B. Bridgers lived, a true pioneer who arrived in Texas in 1824 as one of Stephen F. Austin's original 300 settlers. He fought in the Texas Revolution with Captain Alley's…

You're driving through Schulenburg, where Carl T. Morene left a lasting musical legacy. Born in 1887, he came here in 1928 to manage the local utility. When the school could no longer afford a music teacher in 1933,…

You're driving past Schulenburg, and if you look closely, you might be seeing the area where Colonel William F. Upton made his home. He arrived in Texas way back in 1853, settling near High Hill. When the Civil War…

Waelder might seem like just another blink-and-you'll-miss-it town along Highway 90, but it's got a history deeper than the roots of those post oak trees that dot the landscape.

Waelder exists because a railroad company drew a line and a nearby town got up and walked to it. In 1874 the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway surveyed this spot into lots as one link in a chain of depot…

Five miles north of where you're standing, a town called Hopkinsville came first. It was founded in 1852 by Dennis Sheffield Hopkins on land bought the year before, and by the mid-1850s it had blacksmith shops, a cotton…

In 1883 the trouble around Waelder wasn't outlaws or rustlers. It was fence wire. That year the Fence Cutting War swept across Texas: as big cattlemen strung the new barbed wire and fenced off range that small farmers…

This little railroad town is named for a man who almost certainly never settled here. Frederick Jacob Waelder was born in Meisenheim, Germany, in 1820, came to the United States as a boy, studied law, and eventually…

Waelder existed for one reason: to load freight onto trains. Once the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway reached town in 1874, this became a shipping point for the cotton, corn, and cattle of northern…

For a town this size, Waelder put a notable name in the record books. Henrietta "Hettie" Manlove Cunningham came here as one of the community's early schoolteachers, but her lasting distinction is in a different field…

Drive past 515 West U.S. Highway 90 and you're at the plant that quietly turned Waelder into one of Texas's biggest names in smoked meat. J-Bar-B Foods was started in 1959 by Felix and Billie Mae Janecka as a small…

One downtown building here ran as a store for an astonishing 113 years. R. L. Miller's General Merchandise Store opened back in 1866 over in Hopkinsville, and when the railroad created Waelder in 1874, the Miller store…

You're driving through South Texas, and you might just pass through a town named Waelder. But did you know it's named after Jacob Waelder, a German immigrant who became a Texas lawyer and legislator? Waelder arrived in…

You're driving past the site of a building that was the heart of Schulenburg for decades. Built in 1886 by Henry Bohlman for the Schulenburg Turnverein, a German gymnastic club, this was Turner Hall. More than just a…

You're driving past the resting place of Leander C. Cunningham, a veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto. Born in Tennessee in 1810, he fought for Texas independence. He passed away on Christmas Eve, 1896, after a long…

You're driving past Miller's Store, a Waelder landmark that's been serving this community for generations. The first store opened way back in 1866, but this building itself went up between 1900 and 1901. Look closely at…

You're driving through Gonzales County, right where a town sprang up thanks to the railroad. In 1876, the Galveston, Harrisburg, & San Antonio Railroad laid tracks through here, and this spot was chosen as a shipping…

You're driving through Gonzales County, heading towards Waelder. This town owes its very existence to the railroad. In 1874, Thomas Wentworth Peirce, president of the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway,…

You're driving past Waelder, a town that owes its existence to the railroad. Back in 1852, Dennis Sheffield Hopkins founded a community five miles northwest, complete with a Masonic Lodge he helped organize in 1855. But…

Just outside Schulenburg, you’ll find some of the most surprising buildings in all of Texas. They’re known as the Painted Churches. From the outside, they look like simple, white wooden churches you’d see anywhere in…

In Schulenburg, the dream of flight wasn't just for the birds. It was for two local brothers, Victor and Joe Stanzel, who turned a boyhood hobby into a world-renowned business. Victor used to stop plowing the family…

On Saturday the twelfth of November, 1960, a man in a green plaid shirt carried a military duffle bag into the Farmers State Bank in Schulenburg. He had a forty five caliber revolver. He left with four thousand eight…

One of Schulenburg's grandest old buildings was built for two appetites at once: drinking and dancing. In 1894 brothers Charles and Gustav Sengelmann put up the Two Brothers Saloon, and they stacked the town's social…

There's a Texas polka waltz called "Moon Over Moravia," and the Moravia it's named for is a Lavaca County hamlet about ten minutes out of Schulenburg — pretty much dead center between Houston and San Antonio. The store…

If the walls of Sengelmann Hall could talk, they'd probably sing a polka. Built in 1894 on Main Street, right across from the railroad tracks, it went up after fire destroyed the Sengelmann brothers' earlier saloon on…

If you’re driving on Interstate 10, you are experiencing the piece of engineering that redefined Schulenburg for the modern era. When this highway was built in the mid-20th century, it was a monumental undertaking of…

In 1831, the Mexican government granted 4,428 acres of land to Kesiah Crier, marking the beginning of European-American settlement in the area that would become Schulenburg. The town developed from two nearby…

There was a Catholic high school in Schulenburg called Bishop Forest. It opened on Ranger Drive in nineteen fifty-six, it closed in nineteen eighty-nine, and in between it turned out one of the most entertaining men in…

Schulenburg went from empty prairie to a real town at startling speed. The railroad arrived in 1873, the town incorporated just two years later in 1875, and by 1884, only about eleven years in, it was already humming.…

You're driving past the Boehnke Cemetery. It began in 1873 when the Boehnke's infant son Ernest was buried here on their farm. The last burial was their granddaughter Mellie in 1967. Seventeen people are interred here,…

Schulenburg got its name in what amounts to a polite argument. In 1873 the railroad was laying track through southern Fayette County, and that spring it bought up the farm of Louis and Johanna Schulenburg, about 450…

Here is something you would never guess about a quiet farm town: for the better part of a century, Schulenburg built flying toys for children all over America. It started in the 1930s, in the teeth of the Depression,…

Schulenburg is the gateway to one of the most surprising sights in Texas, the Painted Churches, though most of them sit just outside town in tiny communities like Dubina, Ammannsville, Praha, and High Hill. From the…

The man who almost gave Schulenburg his own name was a former revolutionary. John Christian Baumgarten was one of the German Forty-Eighters, the idealists who fled Europe after the failed revolutions of 1848, and he…

Baumgarten's Schulenburg Oil Mill, opened in 1883, hid a real chemical problem inside the cottonseed flour it sold, even if nobody in town had the word for it yet. Cottonseed is loaded with protein, which is why it…

You're cruising past the Gus Cranz Mansion in Schulenburg, a beautiful example of German craftsmanship. <break time="400ms"/> Built in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1874</say-as>, immigrant carpenters used…

You're driving past Black Jack Springs Cemetery, a quiet resting place with a story stretching back to the 1860s. It began with a burial for Thomas Oeding, who died in 1867, on land donated by pioneer Charles Luck. The…

Schulenburg's 1991 state championship was set up by a heartbreak. In 1990 David Husmann's Shorthorns reached the Class 2A semifinals and lost a 41-36 shootout to Groveton, which went on to win the title. A year later…

Schulenburg repeated as Class 2A state champion in 1992, beating Goldthwaite 35-20 in the Astrodome to finish 15-1 — a win official enough that the Texas House of Representatives passed a resolution about it, praising…

Schulenburg's football stadium is named David Husmann Memorial Stadium, for the coach who ran the Shorthorns from 1985 through the 1997 season: 139 wins in 13 seasons, the playoffs 11 times in those 13 seasons, three…

Schulenburg's first state football championship came in 1972, when Tom Walker's Shorthorns went 12-1-2 and beat the Clarendon Broncos 14-10 for the Class 1A title on December 22 at Brownwood's Municipal Stadium. It was…

From 1990 through 1994, David Husmann's Schulenburg teams went 69-6 with three perfect regular seasons and back-to-back state championships in 1991 and 1992. The 1994 team nearly made it three titles in four seasons:…

Billy 'Bill' Bucek was Schulenburg's first four-year football letterman, finishing with his senior season of 1955, when his Texas High School Football Hall of Fame bio credits him with 1,273 rushing yards and 17…

You're driving through Schulenburg, Texas, where you might hear the nickname "Music Man" still echoing. That was Carl T. Morene, an immigrant's son who rose from orphan to Navy and WWI veteran, and eventually headed the…

You're driving through Fayette County, and right here is Schulenburg, a town that owes its name to two brothers who fought in the Civil War. William and John Upton both rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. John was…

You're driving past Schulenburg, and right here is the story of a church that moved itself! Organized around 1871 as High Hill Missionary Baptist Church, the lumber for their first building was hauled by oxen three…

You're driving past Cedar Creek Cemetery, established around 1875 by the African-American community. The African Methodist Episcopalian Church, organized nearby, received this land and built a church and cemetery. Look…

You're cruising down I-10, and right here is Schulenburg, a town born from the railroad. In 1873, the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway pushed through this land. A fellow named Louis Schulenburg donated the…

From the outside, they look like plain wooden country churches on the flat Texas prairie. Walk through the door and you're standing in a miniature European cathedral. In the late 1800s, Czech and German immigrants in…

You're passing the Old Anderson Place at 510 South Main Street in Schulenburg, the oldest continuously occupied house in the area. It was built before 1857 by William B. Anderson, a carpenter, blacksmith, postmaster of…

Area's oldest occupied house. Built before 1857 by William B. and Rosetta Anderson, three of whose eleven children were born here. Anderson was a carpenter, blacksmith, postmaster in town of Lyons, justice of the peace,…

You're driving past the original site of Texas's very first oil mill, right here in Schulenburg. Back in 1866, Frederick Hillje built this place, adapting a German sugar beet crusher to process seeds. His mill grew,…

You're driving past the site of the Philadelphia Evangelical Lutheran Church in La Grange. This congregation has a long history, dating back to March 24, 1867, making it the second oldest in its synod. Imagine the early…

You're driving past the United Evangelical Lutheran Cemetery, right where the Swiss Alp community got its start around 1865. The Philadelphia Evangelical Lutheran Church was established soon after, meeting on land…

You're driving through Fayette County, not far from where the town of Lyons once stood. It started on land granted to Keziah Cryer, but the town got its name from settler James Lyons. He was killed by Indian raiders…

You're passing through Schulenburg, a town that owes its existence to the railroad and a bit of German and Czech grit. In 1873, settlers from nearby Lyons and High Hill found a new home when the Galveston, Houston & San…

You're driving past Lyons Lodge No. 195, A.F. & A.M.. Lyons Lodge No. 195, A.F.& A.M. began in the community of Lyons in 1856. The first meeting place was at a farm in the town.

You're driving past the site of Oak Grove School, a community hub that served students for nearly 80 years. Local lore says it started around 1882, named for a stand of post oaks. The Wenske family donated land in 1894,…

The community of Henkhaus, out on the rail line between Shiner and Moulton, carries the name of the family that started it, and the founder built the first house on the league and was its first permanent inhabitant.…

Dietrich Garbade landed in Texas from Bremen with twenty eight dollars to his name, and he spent all of it on a saddle. That was not vanity. A farmer hiring a hand supplied the horse and the hand supplied his own…

You're driving past the site of the Witting School, one of the last rural schools in Lavaca County to close. German immigrants settled this area in the late 1800s, and George Witting himself donated the land in 1880 for…

You're driving past the site of the old Dickson School. Established in 1886, this school served Lavaca County for over sixty years. It started as a one-room schoolhouse and was later expanded and moved across the road…

You're driving past the site of Hopkinsville, a community that boomed and busted in the Texas frontier. Farmer D.S. Hopkins settled here in 1852, and this spot quickly became a hub for cattle drives heading north on the…

You're driving past the site of Evergreen School, a community hub that served rural Lavaca County for over fifty years. It all started in 1897 when trustees bought two acres for a schoolhouse. By 1903, they'd added more…

You're driving through Lavaca County, near the site of the former community of Breslau. German and Czech immigrants settled here in the 1860s and 70s, naming their farms after the Prussian city. Fritz Ladewig donated…

The Sergeant David M. Furrh Memorial Highway follows State Highway Ninety Five between Shiner and Moulton. David Furrh was born in Houston in nineteen sixty, and he spent seventeen years in law enforcement, with the…

You're driving through Lavaca County, not far from where history was made. It's March 15th, 1836, and General Sam Houston and his Texas Army are on the move, retreating eastward from Gonzales. They cross Rocky Creek…

You're driving past the site of Sulphur Park, a concrete swimming pool and rec area built in 1930 by Jake Kurtz. Fed by mineral water from a 73-foot well, the 120-foot pool was the heart of a summer oasis with picnic…

You're driving past the Navidad Baptist Cemetery, a quiet reminder of a town that vanished. Back in the 1840s, this area was the pioneer community of Lyons, established on land originally granted in 1831. By 1853, Seth…

You're driving past High Hill Cemetery, a final resting place for many German immigrants who settled this part of Texas. The community itself got its name from a post office established around 1858. This six-acre…

You're driving through Shiner, Texas, and right here is the story of the Ponton family, who arrived in Texas back in 1829. William Ponton was the very first settler in this area to be killed by Comanche Indians. His…

You're driving past the site of a Texas hero! Joseph Lawrence fought in the Texas War for Independence and was there at the Battle of San Jacinto, the fight that won Texas its freedom. Imagine the courage it took to…

You're driving past Andrews Chapel Cemetery, a place with roots going back to the 1860s. It's named for A.G. Andrews, who donated land for a church and burial ground. Look for the grave of Alfred Morrow, a Mexican War…

You're driving past Stacy School. STACY SCHOOL NEAR THE TURN OF THE 20TH CENTURY, LARGE NUMBERS OF GERMAN AND CZECH IMMIGRANTS SETTLED IN LAVACA COUNTY. TO EDUCATE THE INFLUX OF CHILDREN, THE COUNTY CREATED NUMEROUS…

You're driving past the site of the Brookfield-Evans-Cremer House, a place that saw some serious Texas history unfold. It all started back in 1835 when Samuel Brookfield bought this land. He died at the Alamo the very…

You're driving past the resting place of John Socrates Darling, a Texan who fought for Texas independence. He arrived in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1835</say-as>, just in time to fight in the Siege of Bexar.…

You're driving past Antioch Cemetery, the last vestige of a farming community that thrived here before the Civil War. It was originally located a mile and a quarter northwest of here, with graves dating back even before…

You're driving past the site of the Radhost School, a testament to the dedication of Czech immigrants in Lavaca County. Opened in 1873, this school began as a single classroom teaching in the Bohemian language. Imagine…

You're driving past La Grange, where a significant piece of Czech-Texan history unfolded. On March 24, 1889, a group of Czech immigrants gathered right here to form the Katolicka Jednota Texaska, or the Czech Catholic…

You're driving past Cedar Cemetery, a final resting place with roots stretching back to the 1830s. The earliest marked grave here is Carl Huebner, laid to rest in 1857. Imagine, all the records were kept in German until…

You're driving through the area where a community known by names like Possum Trot and Prickly Pear began to form in the 1870s. In 1882, land was sold here for a cemetery, which became known as Saturn Cemetery, serving…

You're driving through Fayette County, heading past the site of the oldest Czech settlement in Texas. In November of <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1856</say-as>, three families arrived here from Czechoslovakia.…

You're driving through what used to be Hackberry, a community founded by German immigrant Ludwig Eduard Neuhaus. He arrived in Texas in 1846 and, seeing opportunity, sponsored his own brothers and other countrymen to…

THE HACKBERRY COMMUNITY WAS ESTABLISHED BY GERMAN IMMIGRANT LUDWIG EDUARD NEUHAUS, WHO CAME TO TEXAS IN 1846, SETTLING IN NORTHERN LAVACA COUNTY. HE ENCOURAGED AND SPONSORED OTHER GERMAN IMMIGRANTS TO SETTLE IN…

You're driving through Fayette County, heading towards a place called Dubina. The name itself means 'Oak Grove' in Czech. This spot was founded way back in 1856 by a determined group of Moravian immigrants, families…

You're driving through the heart of Texas, but imagine this: a whole society of German noblemen, back in the 1840s, decided to create a 'new Germany' right here on Texas soil. They called themselves the Adelsverein, and…

You're driving through what is now Fayette County, heading into a Texas that was still wild and untamed. Back in the fall of 1822, John C. Alley, one of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred, was canoeing up the…

You're driving through what was once the Confederate Territory of Arizona, right here in the Mesilla Valley. In 1861, John Robert Baylor, a fiery frontiersman and politician, seized this area for the Confederacy. He…

You're driving near La Grange, and right here, overlooking the Colorado River, is the site of Bluff. This community owes its existence to a high bluff and a German immigrant named H. L. Kreische. In the late 1840s, he…

You're driving through what was once the wild frontier of Texas, and right here, in the area that became Fayette County, lived a legend named Aylett C. Buckner. Nicknamed 'Strap' for his incredible size and strength,…