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| "Uptown
Garwood" - TE photo, 2000
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History
in a Pecan Shell
Around
1900 farmers started growing rice west of the Colorado River. In 1901 there
was just short of 3,000 acres under cultivation in the area that was to become
Garwood. In July of that year a town was platted, land was deeded to the county
for streets and a name was chosen. The men responsible were M. H. Townsend, T.
A. Hill and W. T.Burford, but they chose Hiram Morgan Garwood, a lawyer from Bastrop
(who never lived in Colorado County).
Ed Frnka, a store owner in nearby
Vox Populi, moved his store to Garwood by having it pulled by 48 mules.
The Frnka house was the first built in Garwood, although others had been moved
in, many in the same way as the store. The Frnka family coninues to reside in
Garwood and since they were there from the beginning, they are highly recommended
as local historians.
Garwood is a street and avenue city with two of
the streets being named after Hill and Townsend and an avenue named after Sheriff
Burford. Other streets were named after the first Postmistress (Nellie), various
county commissioners (Hastedt and Bouldin) and Arthur Street was named for Arthur
Burford, son of W. T. who was killed in Bastrop while serving as a special deputy
during a trial. Details are not known, however the trial was for one J.G. Townsend.
Arthur had just graduated from Law School at the University of Texas. The
Townsend family was one of the most influential families in Colorado County and
was responsible for half of the Townsend-Stafford Feud - a twenty year fight that
is usually always included in books on Texas feuds.
We
learned that the Garwood Bank, organized in 1910 had been robbed 3 times. On one
occasion, the two robbers were arrested in Wharton County and photographed with
about 15 Wharton County lawmen. |
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South
Point Baptist Church NW of Garwood
Photo courtesy Barclay
Gibson, August 2005 |
A
Visit to Garwood: The
highway view of Garwood is in no way representative of the town itself. A small
sign, (visible during the day) will point you in the direction of "Uptown Garwood."
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It's
an easy mistake to make. Just remember Garfield is the one with the Thai Restaurant
under the water tower. More Texas
Water Towers
TE photo, 2000 |
The
Garwood Post Office is about as neat and clean as any in the state. Postmaster
Janet M. Wells, although she doesn't live in Garwood, can't imagine working
in a nicer place. She commutes daily from Brasserie (68 miles one way) and gets
to pass by Glen
Flora and Egypt
on her way to work. She's apparently well accepted by Garwood's citizens and by
the pleasant way she corrected us for calling the town "Garfield," (four times)
we can see why.
She answered nearly every question we had and she then
she introduced us to Mrs. Conner, a retired schoolteacher who taught school
in Colorado County for 30 years. Now in her 80s, she is taking piano lessons,
but only when she has time. Mrs. Conner remembers living in the Garwood Hotel
(now the Bucksnag Hunting Lodge) with several other teachers back in 1939.
She paid $20.00 a month for room and board and still remembers how wonderful
the home cooked meals were. We got some pretty good stories from her, but she
said "Well, you probably don't want to hear all of this." We told her we always
get more than we need so we can "shrink the story." She asked us to "shrink it
real good."
She told us that the Colorado County Retired Teachers
are a very active group and meet monthly in Columbus.
She invited us to attend, and since teachers are among our favorite people, we
may take her up on her invitation.
We took Mrs. Conner's advice and drove
south to where the road Ts into Casa Lehrer. One block to the right is
the Garwood Church, shaded by memorial oaks planted for two sons of Garwood who
died in WWII. |
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