Dewville, Texas. (original) (raw)

Dewville History in a Pecan Shell

Named for two brothers, John and Thomas Dew, the town was once on the Old San Antonio Road.

It was halfway between the towns of Albuquerque and Sandies Chapel. A post office opened in 1894 (closing in 1955) and in 1897 the Methodist Church from Sandies Chapel was moved to Dewville. A two-story school was built in 1901 and in 1907 the school took in the Sandies Chapel students.

The population was 50 by 1914 - a figure that it kept into the 1960s. Nixon slowly siphoned off the towns population and by 1970 there were only 15 people left.

The population remains estimated at 15 and the Methodist church and two cemeteries are nearby (Dewville and Sandies Chapel).

Dewville, Texas Historical Marker

Marker Title: Ghost Town of Dewville
Year Marker Erected: 1971
Marker Text

DEWVILLE, TEXAS.
Dewville is at the intersection of a country road and Farm Road 1117, near the southwestern corner of Gonzales County twenty-five miles southwest of Gonzales. It is on the Old San Antonio Roadqv between the sites of two defunct communities, Albuquerque and Sandies Chapel. Dewville is named for two brothers, John Frank and Thomas M. Dew, who opened a steam-powered gin on the site in 1885. A Baptist church was organized there about 1890. The community was granted a post office in 1894, and in 1897 Sandies Chapel Methodist Church was moved to Dewville. A two-story school building was erected in the community in 1901, and Sandies Chapel School was consolidated with Dewville in 1907. In 1914 Dewville had a population of fifty, a gin, a general store, and telephone service. Its population was estimated at fifty-five from 1925 until the 1960s. At different times the community had a blacksmith shop, a meat market, and an Odd Fellows Hall. In 1940 Dewville comprised a post office, two churches, a school, a cemetery, and scattered dwellings. The post office closed in 1955. The community slowly lost population, as the nearby railroad community of Nixon prospered, and the population of Dewville dropped to forty in the 1960s and to fifteen by 1970. In 1990 the population was still estimated at fifteen, and the Methodist church and a cemetery were at the site.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Gonzales County Historical Commission, History of Gonzales County (Dallas: Curtis, 1986).
- Gary E. McKee

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