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Gonzales County TX
Gonzales County

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SMILEY, TEXAS

Gonzales County, Central Texas South

29°16'10"N 97°38'13"W (29.269402, -97.636850)
Highway 87
FM 3234 and 108
21 miles S of Gonzales
Population: 575 Est. (2016)
549 (2010) 453 (2000) 463 (1990)

Book Hotel Here › Gonzales Hotels
Smiley Texas
Smiley water tower
Photo courtesy Jim & Lou Kinsey, April 2005
History in a Pecan Shell

John Smiley was a sheepherder who settled on a lake in the vicinity in the early 1870s. The lake became known as Smiley’s Lake – and older Gonzales County residents knew Smiley as Smiley’s Lake. By the turn of the century – only the name Smiley appeared on maps.

Cattle herds driven to market watered at the lake. Businesses soon sprang up to cater to the drovers and by the 1880s – a town was born.

A post office opened in 1884 and within two years Smiley became Gonzales County’s number three city. By 1896 the community had several hundred residents.

In 1905, the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway came through the area north of “old” Smiley.

The town incorporated in 1911 but was devastated by a fire that same year. By the 1920s Smiley had an estimated population of 600. In the 1930s and 1940s it became well-known as a poultry-processing center.

In 1964 the population fell just below 500 and remained at that level for the next 35 years.
Smiley Texas Post Office
Smiley Post Office
Photo courtesy Jim & Lou Kinsey, April 2005
More Texas Post Offices

Take a road trip

Smiley, Texas Nearby Towns:
Gonzales the county seat
See Gonzales County | Central Texas South

Book Hotel Here:
Gonzales Hotels | More Hotels
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