Longpoint, Texas, Washington County. (original) (raw)

La Bahia Winding Road
TE photo, 2002

History in a Pecan Shell

The settlement was founded in 1850 on land that had belonged to Stephen F. Austin. The town's name appeared as Long Point up until the twentieth century.

Botanist Gideon Lincecum lived on the high ground overlooking the Yegua Creek valley on a plantation that he lightheartedly called Mount Olympus. A post office was granted under the name Montville, but after 1851 it became Long Point. Lincecum and his son Lysander served as Long Point's physicians - using his knowledge of plants to provide herbal cures. Long Point suffered economic hardships after the Civil War as well as a decreased population.

Long Point prospered throughout the 1880s when the population was estimated at 500. Nearby Gay Hill supplanted Long Point as the dominant town in NW Washington County with the arrival of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad. By 1890 the population fell to 146 and industry came to a near standstill. The post office closed in 1907 and from 1890 to 1960 the population was dutifully reported as 146. From 1970 to 2000 it has been given as eighty.

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