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Dewville History
in a Pecan Shell
Named for two brothers,
John and Thomas Dew, the town was once on the Old San Antonio Road.
It was halfway between the towns of Albuquerque and Sandies Chapel.
A post office opened in 1894 (closing in 1955) and in 1897 the Methodist
Church from Sandies Chapel was moved to Dewville. A two-story school
was built in 1901 and in 1907 the school took in the Sandies Chapel
students.
The population was 50 by 1914 - a figure that it kept into the 1960s.
Nixon slowly siphoned off the towns population and by 1970 there were
only 15 people left.
The population remains estimated at 15 and the Methodist church and
two cemeteries are nearby (Dewville and Sandies Chapel). |
Dewville,
Texas Historical Marker
Marker
Title: Ghost Town of Dewville
Year Marker Erected: 1971
Marker Text
DEWVILLE, TEXAS.
Dewville is at the intersection of a country road and Farm Road 1117,
near the southwestern corner of Gonzales County twenty-five miles
southwest of Gonzales. It is on the Old San Antonio Roadqv between
the sites of two defunct communities, Albuquerque and Sandies Chapel.
Dewville is named for two brothers, John Frank and Thomas M. Dew,
who opened a steam-powered gin on the site in 1885. A Baptist church
was organized there about 1890. The community was granted a post office
in 1894, and in 1897 Sandies Chapel Methodist Church was moved to
Dewville. A two-story school building was erected in the community
in 1901, and Sandies Chapel School was consolidated with Dewville
in 1907. In 1914 Dewville had a population of fifty, a gin, a general
store, and telephone service. Its population was estimated at fifty-five
from 1925 until the 1960s. At different times the community had a
blacksmith shop, a meat market, and an Odd Fellows Hall. In 1940 Dewville
comprised a post office, two churches, a school, a cemetery, and scattered
dwellings. The post office closed in 1955. The community slowly lost
population, as the nearby railroad community of Nixon prospered, and
the population of Dewville dropped to forty in the 1960s and to fifteen
by 1970. In 1990 the population was still estimated at fifteen, and
the Methodist church and a cemetery were at the site.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Gonzales County Historical Commission, History of Gonzales
County (Dallas: Curtis, 1986).
- Gary E. McKee |
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