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The
Biegel log home in the Winedale Historical Center near Round
Top.
TE photo, January 2009 |
History in
a Pecan Shell
Joseph Biegel, a German immigrant from Alsace-Lorraine, received his land from
an 1832 Mexican land grant. By the mid 1840s all but 400 acres of his grant had
been sold. An agricultural community of German, Swiss, and Alsatian immigrants
developed here in the 1860s and in 1866 storekeeper Helmuth Kroll opened for business.
The town opened a post office in Kroll’s store in the mid 1870s.
With
Kroll’s store as a cornerstone, other businesses opened and formed a town center.
A dance hall was in operation under the auspices of a community organization and
the town supported a school. When the railroad crossed Fayette
County in the late 1880s, Biegel was bypassed and withered on the vine. From
an estimated population of 250 in the early 1880s, Biegel shrank to a mere 50
by the mid 1890s.
In 1974-75 the Lower Colorado River Authority built
the Seymour Smith power plant - a coal-burning electricity producing facility.
The cooling reservoir became either Power Plant Lake or Lake Fayette
– depending on which map you use or whom you talk to.
The Biegel log home
was moved to the Winedale Historical Center near Round
Top and the cemetery was moved nearby – but remains on LCRA land. As of early
2009 the Biegel cabin was undergoing restoration. |
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The
Biegel cabin interior
TE photo, January 2009 | |
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