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SMILEY,
TEXAS
Gonzales County,
Central Texas S
Highway 87
FM 3234 and 108
21 miles South of Gonzales
Population 453(2000) 463(1990)
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Smiley
water tower
Photo courtesy Jim & Lou Kinsey, April 2005 |
History
in a Pecan Shell
John Smiley was a sheepherder who settled on a lake in the vicinity
in the early 1870s. The lake became known as Smiley’s Lake – and older
Gonzales County residents knew Smiley as Smiley’s Lake. By the turn
of the century – only the name Smiley appeared on maps.
Cattle herds driven to market watered at the lake. Businesses soon
sprang up to cater to the drovers and by the 1880s – a town was born.
A post office opened in 1884 and within two years Smiley became Gonzales
County’s number three city. By 1896 the community had several hundred
residents.
In 1905, the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway came through
the area north of “old” Smiley.
The town incorporated in 1911 but was devastated by a fire that same
year. By the 1920s Smiley had an estimated population of 600. In the
1930s and 1940s it became well-known as a poultry-processing center.
In 1964 the population fell just below 500 and remained at that level
for the next 35 years.
Book
Your Hotel Here & Save
Gonzales
Hotels
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Smiley,
Texas Forum
Anyone with
stories, memories or photos of Smiley, Texas, please contact
us.
© John Troesser |
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