As We Head Into New Year: Notable Facts and Firsts in Fayette County
Footprints
Most of the residents of Fayette County consider themselves fortunate to be living in a place noted not only for its beauty, but also for its heritage and history. Fayette County and its residents can claim many “firsts,” giving it a unique distinction that sets it apart from other counties in the state. Some of these “firsts,” as well as other notable facts are listed below: In 1814, Aylett C. Buckner and companion, Peter Powell, squatted on what is now Fayette County land, becoming the first documented Anglo settlers.
Sylvanus Castleman received the first league of land in the area that would become Fayette County in 1824.
William Rabb erected the first grist mill on the Colorado River at Rabb’s Prairie in 1830. He also planted and harvested the first crop ever produced in the county.
Christian Gotthelf Wertzner was the first permanent German settler in the county, arriving in 1831.
Biegel, the first German settlement in the county and the second in the state was founded by Joseph Biegel in 1832. It now lies under the Fayette Power Plant cooling lake.
Tabitha Moore, the daughter of Col. John H. and Eliza Cummins Moore, was the first white child born in La Grange.
The first school in the county was founded in 1834 by David Breeding on his land approximately five miles northeast of Fayetteville.
The first shot of the Texas Revolution was fired from a small cannon by Texans under the command of Col. John H. Moore of La Grange on October 2, 1835 near Gonzales, Texas.
Fayette County was created in 1837 from the counties of Colorado and Mina (Bastrop) by the Republic of Texas Congress.
In 1838, Eblin’s League south of La Grange was in consideration to be the site of the capital of the Republic of Texas; however, Sam Houston vetoed the bill. The south side of present- day La Grange is in Eblin’s League.
The first institution of higher education in Texas was established in 1837-38 in Rutersville. The first Protestant and first Methodist College in Texas was chartered on January 25, 1840 in Rutersville.
The oldest man killed in the Dawson Massacre on Sept. 18, 1842 was Zadock Woods from West Point.
“The La Grange Intellingencer” was the first newspaper printed in Fayette County in 1844. Judge R.E.B. Baylor of Halsted was a member of the Constitutional Convention that wrote the first state constitution. Baylor also organized the first school in La Grange in 1839 and was one of the organizers of Baylor College.
A La Grange merchant built the first steamboat, the Kate Ward, which hauled cotton and lumber on the Colorado River.
The first Czech-Moravian Protestant worship service ever held in Texas was in 1855 at the Brethren Church at Ross Prairie near Fayetteville.
Dubina was the first settlement in Texas to be founded entirely by Czech-Moravians in 1856.
The first Bohemian Catholic parochial school in the United States was established at Praha.
The first cottonseed oil mill in Texas was built in High Hill near Schulenburg in 1866.
Augustine Haidusek was the first Czech mayor of a city (La Grange) in Texas in 1875. He was also one of the first Czech lawyers to practice in the United States, the first Czech state legislator, the first Czech county judge in Fayette County, the first Czech bank president in Fayette County, and the first Czech to serve on the board of the Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College. The beer brewery built on the Bluff by Henry Kreische in the late 1860s ranked third in production in the state in 1878.
The first bridge across the Colorado River in Fayette County was built in 1883 on the west side of La Grange.
The Svoboda, a newspaper founded by Augustin Haidusek in La Grange in 1885, was the largest Czech newspaper in Texas at that time with a circulation of 4000 subscribers.
The first telephone line in the county was installed from La Grange to Weimar in 1887.
The first street lights in La Grange, placed at the four corners of the square, were installed in 1892.
The SPJST, a state-wide Czech fraternal organization, was founded in La Grange in 1896.
A state-wide fraternal organization known as the K.J.T. was founded at Hostyn in 1889 (K.J.T. is the Czech Catholic Union of Texas.)
The first rural mail route in Texas began in La Grange in 1899.
Bermuda Valley in Schulenburg was the first horse race track in south Texas (18971920).
Schulenburg was one of the first towns in Texas to have daytime electricity.
The Carnation Milk Company located its first Texas plant in Schulenburg in 1929. The first roadside park in Texas was established 12 miles west of La Grange on Hwy. 71 in the fall of 1933.
At one time, there were 20 Czech communities in Fayette County – more than any other county in Texas.
The cedar Wandke organ in the Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Round Top is the first handmade pipe organ in any Lutheran Church in Texas.
Hermes Drug Store in La Grange was the oldest continuously operating drug store in the state.
Round Top is the smallest incorporated town in Texas.
St. Martin’s Catholic Church near Warrenton is the smallest Catholic church in the United States.
Fayetteville has the only precinct courthouse in the United States with a four-faced Seth Thomas clock.
Ellinger was the first town in Fayette County to have “talkie” movies.
Joseph Sykora of Fayette County, who died at age 106 in 1970, had the distinction of being the oldest Czech American at that time.
Fayette County was the first county in Texas to scatter wildflower seeds on the highway roadsides.
Fayette County was the first county in Texas to use rural addressing for 911 services.
Fayette County developed the first county-wide recycling program in Texas.
Source: Fayette County, Texas Heritage, Vol. I
Of Fayette
Fayette County is one of the most historic counties in Texas. In this weekly feature from the County Historical Commission, a rotating group of writers looks back at local history.