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  Texas : Towns A-Z / Central Texas South : Winchester

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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Giddings Hotels

St. Michaels Lutheran Church, Winchester, Texas
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.
Winchester, Texas post office
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.
Winchester Texas old store
An old store in Winchester
TE photo, 2000
A huge storm in 1910 damaged two churches in Winchester, so the townsfolk built a "Union Church" which was shared by the two denominations.
The First Methodist Church in Winchester

Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, April 2005
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More photos by Barclay Gibson
 
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