Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, Volume 10, Number 1, January 2000 Page: 39
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Consider the Lily: The Ungilded History of Colorado County, Texas
The railroad acquired its second depot site, in far western Colorado County
some seven miles west of Borden, from Daniel Washington Jackson on April 22, 1873.
Jackson agreed to provide the railroad with suitable land for a depot, and the railroad agreed
to lay out a town on a 320-acre tract and to split the profits from the sale of the lots with
Jackson. By June 20, the depot was in place. Jackson formally conveyed one-half interest in
the town tract to the railroad, specifying that some lots should be reserved for "churches,
schools, parks public places, & burial grounds." By August, the town had been surveyed and
laid off into lots, and given the name Weimar. On August 28 and 29, the first two lots were
sold, the first to William Herndon and the second to Alex Roeber. Only four months later, on
December 23, 1873, Weimar was given a post office. A telegraph office was installed a year
later. In terms of population growth, Weimar was far and away the most immediately suc-
cessful of the railroad towns in Colorado County. Weimar's depot provided a link to eastern
markets for the farming communities of Oakland, Content, Osage, and the small Fayette
County community of Holman, all of which had considerable populations, all of which were
just a few miles away, and all of which immediately declined or virtually disappeared. Weimar
grew so fast that on July 21, 1875, less than two years after the first lots were sold, the
citizens of the town petitioned the county police court to hold an election to consider incorpo-
ration. On August 26, 39 persons voted to approve incorporation, and only ten voted against.
Five days later, on August 31, 1875, the county declared that the town was incorporated. In
the city's first elections, held on September 15, 1875, Herndon was elected mayor and
Larkin D. Secrest marshal.51
By early 1876, citizens of Schulenburg and Flatonia, both recently-established
railroad towns in neighboring Fayette County, were urging the citizens of Weimar to sepa-
rate their thriving new city from Colorado County and join in establishing a new county,
which was to be named Menefee County. But the citizens of Weimar were against the
proposition. By then, though the city boasted fewer than 500 residents, Weimar had two
schools: the Weimar Institute, taught by Pat H. Hargon, and the Preparatory and Classical
School for Males and Females, taught by Henry Columbus Quin. By September 1876, Quin
had added three more teachers to his faculty. In 1877, a man named Schneider opened a
third school in Weimar, this one conducted in German. By the end of that year, there were
fourteen dry goods and grocery stores in town, plus two drug stores, two wagon shops, two
51 Colorado County Deed Records, Book I, pp. 602, 603, Book R, p. 61; Record ofAppoint-
ment of Postmasters 1832-September 30, 1971, National Archives Microfilm Publication M841, Roll
122; James L. Rock and W. I. Smith, Southern and Western Texas Guide for 1878 (St. Louis: A. H.
Granger, 1878), p. 213; Colorado County Police [Commissioners] Court Minutes, Book 1862-1876, pp.
423-424; Colorado County Election Records, Book 1874-1884; Colorado Citizen, August 13, 1874,
December 10, 1874, September 23, 1875. The indication, in the Rock and Smith book, that the town was
laid out on October 3, 1873 is almost certainly erroneous. Several lots had been sold by that time.39
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Nesbitt Memorial Library. Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, Volume 10, Number 1, January 2000, periodical, January 2000; Columbus, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth151408/m1/39/?q=nesbitt%20memorial%20library%20journal: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Nesbitt Memorial Library.