Oglesby, Texas. (original) (raw)

Oglesby Depot
TE photo, 2001

History in a Pecan Shell

Name to honor William Oglesby, who donated the land for the townsite, the community had been known as Hilltop until the railroad arrived in 1882. First settlers had been in the area as early as the mid 1850s.

In 1883 a post office under the new name was granted and a year later Oglesby had gristmills, gins, churches, school, and just about every essential business for a town whose star was rising. Oglesby had just one hundred citizens, but with the railroad, bountiful crops of corn and cotton - things looked bright.

By the late 1920s the population had reached 500. Oglesby suffered as did most of the state during the Great Depression, but rebounded when a naval ordnance plant opened between Oglesby and McGregor. Oglesby incorporated in the early 1950s.

From the 1949 population of 400. it reached a high-water mark in the late 1980s with 515 people, declining to the current 484.

Ogelsby abandoned railroad station in 1964
Photo courtesy Mike Larro

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