| |
| About 12 miles south
of Santa Anna going toward Brady
on Hwy 283 you'll see the sign for Whon. Being only four letters
it's easy to miss. If you pass the Colorado River you've gone too far.
|
| | What
was once thought to be the geographic center of Texas and was in fact, the country's
only drive-in post office.
TE photo 2000 |
|
The
same building in April 2007
Photo Courtesy Bruce D. White |
| History
in a Pecan Shell
The road to Whon was only paved in 1967. Whon is one of only a handful
of Texas towns that is a misspelling of a ranch worker's name.
Mrs. Sam McCain, the postmistress, thought it would be nice if Juan (last name
forgotten) had the Post Office named after him. Juan may have been flattered but
he never corrected Mrs. McCain's spelling.
The
town cemetery was created when Mrs. McCain's infant daughter drowned in
a stock tank. Whon still had a ZIP code (76889) as of 2000, but we were unable
to find the cemetery.
Our June, 2000 visit found that the building that
was once known as "The Only Drive-In Post Office in the Country" was
still standing. The outbuildings were bulldozed into a big heap. |
| | The
other 50% of Whon
TE photo 2000 | |
| "The
second building is one of the former stores. It is is much worse shape, with the
structure rotted and dangerously unstable." - Photo and caption courtesy
Bruce D. White, April 11, 2007 |
Photographer's
Note:
My family were pioneer settlers of Brown and Coleman Counties. This
includes the Simmons and Fiveash families. My Great-grandfather, Thomas Jefferson
Simmons II owned one of the original general stores in Whon and his brother, George
Washington Simmons had a large farm south of Whon. I made a visit on 11 April
2007 to explore and record the area of my ancestry. What I found was a major change
from the [2001] entry on Texas Escapes.
The Whon "Drive Through" Post
Office is severally dilapidated and disintegrating. The front over hang has totally
collapsed and the building is being used to store junk. It is weathered badly
and will not last much longer.
The second building is one of the former
stores. It is is much worse shape, with the structure rotted and dangerously unstable.
It is filled with bales of rotting hay. I did find a very rusted Grape Nehi soft
drink sign that had fallen off of it.
The little house is still there
and boarded up, with a travel trailer parked behind.
The Whon Cemetery
is in very nice shape, with the single exception of the covered portico is rotten
and falling apart. - Bruce D. White, Austin, Texas, April 11, 2007 |
The
Coleman County History book we consulted mentions Whon as being the geographic
center of Texas. We don't mention this to stir up trouble with McCulloch County,
we're just mentioning it. After we consulted the Handbook of Texas, we
found that the discrepancy was due to a surveyor's 10-mile mistake. See Center
City, Texas.
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© John Troesser
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|
Whon,
Texas Forum Subject:
Whon CemeteryFor
the Whon Cemetery location, coming from FM 2633 to the Whon Post Office
(ex), you follow the paved road which would be to your right. Drive past the end
of pavement and take the first right again. The Cemetery is about one-eighth of
a mile from the corner. Work is being done to it at the present time. If things
go as planned, the cemetery will be enclosed by new fencing and the entire area
free of wild brush. Hopefully this will meet with interested parties' approval.
Whon once had two gas stations, three churches, a school and a high
school, a cotton gin, a barber shop, a laundromat and a grocery cum drug store
along with its post office. It also had a Community Center and even a cafe when
the gin was in operation. The community was thriving until the early forties when
it began to dwindle gradually. Hence, Whon is no longer on any maps of recent
printing. It has a population of between 30 and 35 citizens, not including cows
or other animals. - Trudi Rutherford, June 22, 2001
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