| |
| The
family home on the Mitchell ranch, 1920
Photo courtesy Isaac Newton Mitchell
V |
4 miles
S of Lake Texana on the Lavaca River
History in a Pecan Shell
Philip Dimitt, one of the first Americans to enter Spanish Texas operated
a horse-trading post two miles north of present day Lolita in 1830.
Development
didn't get started until 1880 when the Mitchell Ranch was fenced with the first
barbed wire used in Jackson County.
The town came into being in 1909
and was named after the granddaughter of Texas Revolution veteran Charles Keller
Reese. The railroad installed a switch and the town got a post office that same
year. |
|
The former Lolita High School
Photo courtesy Lou Ann Herda,
2003 |
The community of Red
Bluff separated its school district from that of Lolita's and most businesses
in Red Bluff moved to Lolita.
Lolita had a population of 200 in the mid-1940s.
1969 saw 462 Lolitans. The population has stayed fairly constant at about 300
Lolitians from the late 1980s until the 2000 census of 548. |
|
The
Lolita water tower
Photo courtesy Lou Ann Herda, 2003 |
Lolita
by Mike Cox ("Texas Tales" column)
During one of the hottest years
of the Cold War, residents of a small Texas town made national headlines in taking
umbrage over what looked to them like nothing less than a sinister Communist plot
to besmirch the name of their fair community. more
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Lolita
Texas Forum Lolita
Founders, Mitchell Ranch and Mitchell School
My Great Uncle Chester Stockdale Mitchell surveyed and founded Lolita upon
the land he owned. Charles Keller Reese was a very close friend of Uncle
Stockdale.
Many of the early population were there because of the oil
field drilling and related activity. A few also worked at the cotton gin
which was later converted to a brick factory that also closed down. I recall
bales of cotton on the platform of the train depot. Also there were livestock
shipping pens at the depot.
My grandmother Mary Mitchell donated
the land for the school. During the 1940s, I went to school in the two story tan
brick building which was the original school building. When the high school building
was built, a covered walkway was between the two main buildings. The original
two story tan brick building was torn down sometime after 1950 when my family
moved from our ranch which was immediately on the south side of town.
The photo was taken in approximately 1920.
The main subjects are the family home on the I.N. Mitchell ranch and the swimming
pool that was built a few years before this photo was taken. At the far left of
the photo, you can see the blurred image of the two story tan brick building.
It is by itself. There were no other school buildings then.
- Isaac Newton
Mitchell V, November 2003
Anyone wishing to share
information, stories, or photos of Lolita, Texas, please contact
us.
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John Troesser | | |
