Ashby, Texas. (original) (raw)
History in a Pecan Shell
There is evidence that Karankawa Indians used the site as a campground before settlement. The Handbook of Texas states that a church may have been in use as early as 1869, although it wasn�t until 1890 when the community was granted a post office. Storekeeper, postmaster and Civil War veteran Capt. William Erastus Moore is said to have named the post office after his former commander in the 8th Texas Cavalry. Moore�s store, being on the Tres Palacios River (which was then navigable) had boat traffic for people going upriver to visit Deming�s Bridge. Ashby was a community-minded man and donated land for both a Methodist church and cemetery. The church burned in 1902.
By 1892, Ashby had a daily stage to El Campo, its own doctor and a respectable population of 100. Rice and cotton were the staples of the region and they filled the warehouses of Ashby, waiting for transport to Galveston or New Orleans.
In 1899 Ashby had a one teacher school with 28 pupils and by 1904 it had 40. Classes were held in private homes until a school was constructed in 1911.
The population grew to 150 by 1914 but it�s post office closed in 1919. Mail was then routed through Blessing.
Modernization arrived in the 1930s with paved roads and a two-room school for elementary school. Shortly after WWII, Ashby�s schools were merged with larger districts.
A Baptist church built in 1948 was donated to the Black Baptist congregation ten years later.
In the early 1970s, the Tres Palacios Oaks development appeared opposite the old Hawley cemetery.
Ashby Store
Courtesy Staches Vacek Family Collection
More Texas Stores
Ashby, Texas was suggested for inclusion by Fayette County Historian Carolyn Heinsohn who furnished these photos. Ms. Heinsohn had relatives in the Ashby area. She states that Otylia and Staches Vacek�s children attended the Asby school and the Vaceks family were members of the Catholic mission parish in [nearby] Blessing, Texas. �Ed.
Matagorda County map showing Ashby
Modification of Texas General Land Office 1920s map
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