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WINCHESTER,
TEXAS
Fayette County,
Central Texas S
FM 153 & FM 148
9 miles S of Serbin
14 miles S of Giddings
11 miles E of Smithville
18 miles NW of La Grange
Population: 50
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St.
Michaels Lutheran Church in Winchester
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, April 2005 |
History
in a Pecan Shell
Named
after Winchester, Tennessee and laid out by John Gromme in
1851, the town is in an area known as Ingram's Prairie.
The town site was along the tracks of the Texas and New Orleans
Railroad, and when a second railroad (The San Antonio and Aransas
Pass) came through in 1888, the town really took off. Hotels,
saloons, rooming houses, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, barbers and seven
merchantile stores made Winchester a town to be noticed.
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The
Winchester Post Office as it appears today
TE photo, 2000 |
Like
Round Top and Fayetteville,
Winchester once had a precinct courthouse and could afford to have
a jail for white prisoners and one for black prisoners. An escape
from the black jail resulted in a corner being burned and thereafter,
all prisoners were housed together. The fire damaged jail ended up
being used as a tool shed.
It has nothing to do with Winchester, but when Schulenburg
built a tool shed that was too short to accommodate long handled tools,
the handles were sawn off to the level where they would fit.
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An
old store in Winchester
TE photo, 2000 |
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A
huge storm in 1910 damaged two churches in Winchester, so the townsfolk
built a "Union Church" which was shared by the two denominations. |
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The
First Methodist Church in Winchester
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, April 2005 |
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