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ART,
TEXASMason
County, Texas
Hill Country
Including the suburbs of East Art and West Art
Highway 29
26 miles West of Llano
7.5 miles East of Mason
Population: Dispersed Book
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Mason County is included
in the most heavily populated German part of the Hill Country, with the city of
Mason being the northern most town of any real population. Mason, Gillespie, Kendall
and Comal Counties comprise almost the entire German settlement area, with just
a trace of overflow into Blanco, Kerr, and Llano Counties.
Art is found
on detailed maps of Mason County just East of Mason
(town). It will appear surrounded by five little crosses - a cluster of family
cemeteries.
Art along with Hilda, Loyal
Valley and Doss still have a number of beautiful
utilitarian limestone buildings. The Germans settling this area were German Methodists,
not Catholic or Lutheran Germans. |
| | The
1890 United Methodist Church in Art
Photo courtesy Barclay
Gibson, April 2004 | |
|
History
of ArtArt
by Mike Cox
... Until shortly after World War One, Art’s name was
Plehweville, a handle that sounds something like a sneeze, followed by “ville.”...
Turns out that one person who could pronounce the name Plehweville was Otto Plehwe.
In 1886, he had purchased from J.A. Hoerster a one-year-old general store near
the hill top Methodist Church. The area had been settled by German families in
1856 and they soon built a log church. By 1875, they had raised a stone church
which also served as a school. (And 15 years later, they would build the church
that still stands today.)
Plehwe thought the area needed a post office
as well as a store and the government agreed. Postal officials even went with
Plehwe’s suggested name, one the new post master thought had a nice ring to it:
Plehweville.
Unfortunately, letters to Plehweville, not an easy name to
pronounce, spell or remember, often got lost. Many residents were not content
with the name and neither was the government. Phooey with Plehweville they chorused.
By 1920, Eli Dechart had taken over as store owner and post master of
Plehweville. Like Plehwe, he envisioned a community named in his honor. But unlike
Plehwe, Dechart had a more practical idea. He recommended the new name for the
post office of Plehweville, Texas be Art, Texas – Art being the last three letters
of Dechart. And so by government fiat, Plehweville was transformed into Art.
No
matter its name, Art never flourished. In 2000, census enumerators counted 18
residents. You would think that being only seven miles from Mason the Art post
office would have long since been discontinued by the Postal Service, but not
so. It’s still there at 7866 E. Highway 29, 76820-9817. more |
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Kothmann
Grave Site, and Marker
Photos courtesy Elwin Jensen, March 2007 |
Although
much can be said about Art, we would invite the serious reader to try to locate:
Yesterday in the Texas Hill Country by Dr. Gilbert J. Jordan, Texas A & M Press,
1978.
This small, very entertaining book includes the tiniest details
of life in Art and the other small German Hill Country communities that no longer
appear on highway maps.
The 160 page book. contains details on well-digging,
sausage making, courtship rituals, old-world customs and lessons in German-English
language compromise.
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| Yesterday
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