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SPEAKS,
TEXASLavaca County,
Central Texas S
FM 530
20 Miles SE of Hallettsville
Population:
60
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Speaks
city limit
Photo Courtesy Cheryl Thompson-Draper, June, 2006 |
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History in
a Pecan Shell
Speaks dates from 1828 when Jesse H. Cartwright received a land
grant from the Mexican government. The grant was near the crossing
of the Atascosito road at the Navidad River. A few years later Archibald
White received a grant that surrounded Cartwright's grant and it
was part of White's land that became Speaks.
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Speaks
Community Center, former schoolhouse
Photo Courtesy Cheryl Thompson-Draper, June, 2006 |
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By 1866 the
time had come for the community to apply for a post office. The
submitted name was Speaksville. It was granted and the post office
operated under that name until it closed in 1876. The community
was thereafter called Boxville. The Boxville post office stays open
until 1882 when the store / post office closed.
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"U.S.
Post Office - Speaks, TX 77985"
Photo Courtesy Cheryl Thompson-Draper, June, 2006 |
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Store
and former Post Office
Photo Courtesy Cheryl Thompson-Draper, June, 2006 |
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J. W. Koonce
reopened the store in 1928 and the post office was renamed Speaks.
Population figures for the thirties and forties aren't available
but in 1950 Speaks had fifty people living there, served by two
stores. Oil was discovered nearby on two new fields, but with the
days of boomtowns long gone, the oil merely increased property values.
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Speaks
Cemetery
Photo Courtesy Cheryl Thompson-Draper, June, 2006 |
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Speaks Texas
Forum
Photographer's
Note:
I was
putting together a list of government (national, state and local)
website links for my website and stumbled onto yours... I have "gotten
lost" for two days now reading about my home state of Texas. This
is wonderful and I do understand it's a labor of LOVE!!!!! Thank you
for all the wonderful memories you are preserving for the future (and
for us today).
God Bless you.
My husband and I have a ranch near Speaks, Texas...which lies between
Lavaca County Road 18 and Lavaca County Road 14 on FM 530 ( which
runs from Edna to Hallettsville). I did not see anything about Speaks
so on our way out to the ranch today I photographed the only structures
in Speaks. I have attached them to this email. Speaks "city" sign,
Speaks Community Center building, Speaks Cemetery and Mrs. Bradbury's
store and (former) Post Office.
Thanks for the good work you do. - Cheryl Thompson-Draper, June
10, 2006
Anyone wishing to share history or old photos of Speaks, Texas, please
contact
us.
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