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MINERAL, TEXAS

Bee County, South Texas

28° 32' 55" N, 97° 54' 15" W (28.548611, -97.904167)

FMs 623 and 673
15 miles NW of Beeville
18 miles NE of Oakville
8 miles SW of Pettus
82 miles SE of San Antonio via US 181
Population: 65 est. (2010) 50 (2000, 1990)

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Mineral  Texas - Mineral Mercantile
Mineral Mercantile
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, December 2006

History in a Pecan Shell

In 1877, Mineral was simply a tract of land with settlers digging a water well. When they found their well water wasn't fit to drink, they had it analyzed. It revealed 16 different minerals in the water and the world soon beat a path to what fast became a town. The town was known as Mineral City, and everyone showed up wanting to soak in the waters.

A hotel, stores, churches and a drugstore were soon built and Mineral City became a town. In 1889, they deepened the well and the mineral content dropped dramatically.

Sometime prior to 1895 the word "City" was dropped from Mineral City's post office name. The hotel disappeared - probably becoming someone's private residence.

In 1890 the population was 100 people. They had a fire in 1901 and had barely recovered when there was a flood in 1903.

In 1952 Mineral became the location of The South Texas Children's Home, where it remains today.

See also Swinney Switch, Texas

Mineral Tx Primera Egleasia Baptista
Primera Egleasia Baptista
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, December 2006
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Mineral Texas Forum

Subject: Naming of Mineral & Mineral Stories

I grew up in Mineral. The story [of the naming] was that settlers were passing through in a wagon train and that one of the kids was sick. They stopped and gave the child a drink from a well or spring, and the water cured the kid of his ailment. Supposedly he had some kind of stomach worm. There was arsenic in the water and this is what cured the child.

There were a large amount of sheep dipping vats. There is one that is covered up on the old Bast place where county roads meet just south of Mineral. This is what brought it first to be a mineral spa and people came there from all over. My mother and Audrey Fudge are two of the old timers who still live there. Mrs. Fudge was a Wolfe originaly and her family ran the Mineral Store. My mother moved there in 1942-44 and has lived on the same hill since then. She is now 81.

There are a lot of old Mineral stories. My family and what is left of them were original settlers and my grandfather who died about 1928 owned a confectionary and a barber shop there. Mrs. Grady DuBose who is in the George West / Oakville area, is a cousin to my father. There are lots of stories about Halloween when they would put someone's wagon up on a house. During the war, they turned a touring car with dates over on one of the roads out there. Many of the paved roads were once dirt and there are places where I rode a bicycle as a kid that are now fenced off and some of the old roads are even gone. I can remember going all over the Yoward ranch. They originally owned the Mineral Mercantile. - Dale DuBose, Kingsville, Texas, June 18, 2007

TX - 1907 Bee County Postal map
1907 Bee County Postal map showing Mineral
in NW Bee County

Courtesy Texas General Land Office


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South Texas Towns

Mineral, Texas Nearby Towns:
Beeville the county seat

See Bee County | Live Oak County

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