Maxey, Texas, Lamar County. (original) (raw)

History in a Pecan Shell

First settled prior to the Civil War, a post office was granted to the fledgling community in 1880. The post office had requested the name Nixon, for a local resident that had served in the Civil War under General Samuel Bell Maxey. But the name Nixon had been taken (Gonzales County) so the would-be honoree Nixon and others chose the name of Nixon�s commander (and U.S. Senator) Maxey.

The town seemed to escape the familiar curse of being too close to the county seat to grow. In the mid 1890s, it had a respectable population of 250.

But by 1914 the population had fallen to a mere 50 residents. It had grown to 75 by the mid 1920s, but with the onset of the Great Depression, the post office closed and the population fell into the 40s in the 1960s.

It reported 55 for both the 1990 census and the 2000 census.

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