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History
in a Pecan ShellThe
community came into being in the 1890s with the arrival of the Galveston, Harrisburg
and San Antonio Railroad. A Richmond banker by
the name of Cecil A. Beasley was given naming rights. He first named it Dyer,
after the surname of his fiancé Isabel Dyer, but the name had been in use by another
town. Cecil married Isabel and the town was officially named Beasley with the
opening of a post office in 1898. |
Full-bore promotion
began in 1910 when a Kansas City company advertised for settlers. The population
reached 325 by 1914.
Beasley soon had Baptist and Lutheran churches along
with a hotel, lumberyard and three general stores. The population remained at
350 through WWII, declining
to 300 by the end of the 1940s. By 1960 it had reached bottom at a mere 175 people
but started growing slowly, reaching nearly 500 for 1990 and peaking at 590 residents
for the 2000 census. | |
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