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LAGARTO,
TEXAS
Live Oak County, South
Texas
Farm Roads 534 and 3162
18 miles SE of George
West
18 miles W of Mathis
Population: Est. 80 (1990) 735 ( 2000)
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A Visit to Lagarto,
TexasPhotographer's
Note:
Traveling down
534 you can find the old School & Cemetery (off the road-no signs). But to see
where the town realy is today you need to go east on FM-3162 about 2 miles to
where it dead ends at Lake Corpus Christi. There you can find a store, community
center and fire station. There are many homes in the hills by the lake here. A
massive brush fire earlier this year destroyed many residences and made big news.
Many people were displaced and fundraisers are trying to get this group back on
it's feet. - William
Beauchamp, August 11, 2009
Lagarto
History
Lagarto Cemetery &
Historical Marker |
Lagarto,
Texas History in a Pecan Shell Once
called Roughtown, the name was changed after residents formed a vigilance
committee, closed saloons and prohibited the selling of liquor within a two-mile
radius of the town. The current name is said to be Spanish for "alligator" and
it is presumed that the area was once rife with the reptiles. An earlier Mexican
village was reported in the mid-1830s but as ranchers moved in, the population
faded away.
A town was platted by John W. Ramey in the 1850s and by 1866
it was a thriving town with a population of 500. A post office was granted in
1874 with the slightly different spelling of Lagarta and Lagarto College
opened in 1884. The population dropped to 350 by 1875 but the town had since added
a newspaper, gristmill and hotel. In 1906 Lagarto had two schools with a combined
enrollment of 29 students taught by 2 teachers.
The town was later (1888)
bypassed by the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway and within two years Lagarto
was in decline.
First the college closed and from a population of 200 in
1892 it shrank to just 75 by 1914. By 1936 Lagarto had 100 residents, two schools,
a church, a business, and scattered dwellings. Local schools merged with schools
in George West after
WWII. In 1959 with the construction of Lake Corpus Christi, Lagarto
was given a reprieve, although the population was estimated at only 80 residents
from 1974 to 1990.
The 1925 school is still in use as a community center
(look for the signs on the W side of FM 534). |
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The
drinking fountain of the old school
TE Photo, February 2006 |
Lagarto College
Historical Marker TextSite
of Live Oak County's only college. Opened 1884, with 4 teachers. Promoted locally
to further town's growth (population 500). Once-prosperous Lagarto failed after
2 railroad bypasses. School closed, 1895. Two story building was moved and used
as a ranch house. |
Grave
of first man buried in Lagarto Cemetery
Photo courtesy William
Beauchamp, August 2009 |
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Lagarto
Cemetery Historical Marker Text
In the early 1870's an unknown
traveler died at the home of Samuel and Mary Beall, proprietors of a general store
in the ranching town of Lagarto. The Bealls buried the man at a site on their
property. In 1876, land surrounding the gravesite was formally set aside as the
Lagarto Cemetery when Sam and Mary Beall sold two acres of their land to J.W.
Ramey, Cornelius Clay Cox, and T.P. McNeill, trustees for the Lagarto Community
Cemetery.
The grave of the unknown man is identified only by a caliche
rock cover, as are two other burial sites in the cemetery. The oldest marked grave,
that of two year old Isabel Harrison, is dated October 12, 1876. Others buried
here include Charles H. Fusselman (1866-1890), who was shot in Presidio county
while serving as a Texas ranger, and John Pollan (1808-1890), who fought in the
Texas war for Independence.
Although the population of Lagarto declined
after the railroad bypassed it in 1887, its citizens have continued to use the
cemetery since the 1870's. Descendants of the town's pioneers still live in the
area, which has become the site of development along Lake Corpus Christi. |
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A
former residence
TE Photo, February 2006 |
Lagarto
Texas ForumLagarto
Not a Ghost
I would suggest you visit Lagarto, Texas before telling the
world that it is a ghost town. I live within two miles of the Lagarto highway
marker, and I'm not a ghost and neither are the estimated 700 residents of the
area. In a way, I'm glad you call it a ghost town. That way, no one will bother
us here. Certainly, and gladly, it is no longer an incorporated town and no longer
has its own post office, thank goodness! Thank goodness folks like you have no
idea what's here!! - Penny Peavy, Lagarto, Texas, December 08, 2006 |
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