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Hatchel,
on U.S. Highway 83 in central Runnels
County, was originally named Vogelsang for Otto Vogelsang,
a local settler. With the establishment of a post office in 1904,
it was named for E. W. Hatchel, a storekeeper and the community's
first postmaster. The Abilene and Southern Railway reached Hatchel
in 1909, and soon the community comprised more than eight businesses,
including a depot, cattle pens, and a gin. The first school was built
one mile north of Hatchel and was called Bowman. Sometime after 1920
a two-story rock school building was erected east of the railroad
near downtown Hatchel. A Baptist church was also erected near the
school. The town declined, and by the 1970s it had lost its post office.
The population of Hatchel was reported as fifty in 1940 and as sixteen
in 1980 and 1990.
From "Eighteen
Ghost Towns of Runnels County" by Alton O'Neil Jr. |
Runnels
County 1907 postal map
From Texas state map #2090
Courtesy
Texas General Land Office |
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