Bridge Valley, Texas, Fayette County ghost town. (original) (raw)

History in a Pecan Shell

John Dancy and Edward Manton were grant holders of the original site in the 1830s. The community never developed beyond a few business and residents were focused on corn and cotton cultivation.

Original Anglo settlers sold their holdings to arriving German and (later) Czech immigrants. By the end of the 19th Century, Bridge Valley had a post office operating out of a store, a saloon, a blacksmith and a school.

Voters could walk to the courthouse in La Grange. The post office closed its doors in 1903. Growth was never a serious consideration due to its proximity to La Grange.

Cedar Cemetery, just south of the creek contains the graves of early residents, but the name Bridge Valley is forgotten as a community � except for the occasional local business that may use the name.

History by Carolyn Heinsohn

BRIDGE VALLEY

Among the first settlers were John Dancy, Edward Manton, who arrived in the 1830s; they had large land holdings located on the west side of the Colorado River across from present-day La Grange.

They tried to establish the town of Colorado City, but failed after John Moore successfully enticed settlers to move to his new town of La Grange across the river. German and Czech settlers started to arrive in the 1870s and 1880s.

Anton Legler, a German-Bohemian, who first lived at Bluff and worked for Kreische's Brewery, built a mercantile store, post office, blacksmith shop and saloon.

Legler, a skilled musician, organized the Bridge Valley Band that won first place in 1892 at the Battle of the Flowers' Festival in San Antonio. He eventually moved to Plum, TX and established a large number of businesses there, as well as a store in Rabb's Prairie.

Truck farming was prevalent in the late 19th and early 20th century on the fertile Buckner's Creek bottom.

A one-room school was built in 1880 on land donated by Josef Bordovsky, who became a school trustee and boarded teachers. The school closed in 1940.

Fayette County 1907 postal map
From Texas state map #2090
Courtesy Texas General Land Office

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