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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 |
| Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories,
landmarks and vintage/historic photos, please contact
us. |
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