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VIOLET,
TEXASNueces
County, Texas Gulf Coast
Highway 44
4 miles E of Robstown
12 miles W of Corpus
Christi
Population: 160 (2000)
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| | The
grain elevator at Violet
TE photo, 2003 | |
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History
in a Pecan shell
Erwin Cushman and Louis Petrus acquired 1,030 acres
in the area shortly after the turn of the 19th Century. Petrus bought out Cushman
and hired an agent to sell land in 1908.
First known as Land or Land
Siding, Texas, the community was renamed in 1913 after Violet Fister, the wife
of the community's first storekeeper.
Fister's store also served as the
town's post office - remaining open until 1947.
The agent promoted the
area as a community of German Catholic farmers, selling the land for as little
as fifty cents an acre. His ads in German-language newspapers brought results
and families started arriving within a few months.
A school (that also
served as a church) was built in December of 1910. In 1911 a cemetery was established
on an acre of land reserved for that purpose. |
St.
Anthony's Church at Violet (c. 1919) |
| | The
restored St. Anthony's church - returned to Violet
TE photo, May 2003
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| With the building
of the current church (not shown), the original St. Anthony's church was moved
to Clarkwood and underwent a change of name - becoming Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
Abandoned in 1972, the church prompted the forming of the Violet Historical Society
whose members returned the church to Violet and restored it. |
St.
Anthony's Catholic Church
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, December 2006 |
| Today,
while nearly 400 descendants still reside on original land from the 1908 sale,
the population is officially less than 200. The largest structure in Violet is
the huge grain elevators on the north side of the railroad tracks that parallel
highway 44. |
The
Grain Elevator at Violet
TE photo, May 2003 |
| Photo
courtesy Barclay Gibson, December 2006 | |
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