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History
in a Pecan Shell
David Fitzgerald, one of the original Austin settlers
known as the "Old Three Hundred" was granted land here in 1822. In the 1840s it
was acquired by Jonathan Dawson Waters who made it one of the largest cotton and
sugar plantations in Texas, naming it Arcola.
After the Civil War the Houston Tap Railroad arrived and with Walter's death,
the land was sold to Colonel T. W. House of Houston.
The community of Arcola was predominantly made up of former slaves of the Arcola
Plantation. The town had a post office granted in 1869 which closed and reopened
before closing for good in 1920. The Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe railroad arrived
in 1878 and by 1884 Arcola was thriving with two combination grist and cotton
gins, several basic businesses and two segregated schools. By 1914 Arcola's population
was a mere 50 with a single store. It grew to 120 by 1949 and in 1990 reached
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