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History on a Pecan
ShellFirst settled
by area cattlemen in the 1860s and 1870s, the town was granted a post office in
1880. According to the Handbook of Texas Online, the post office was "named by
the post office department." This was not an unusual occurrence - seeing that
postal officials often disregarded or rejected applications when they conflicted
with similarly spelled towns. What is unusual is the simple statement that it
was named by Washington.
The town seemed to reach it's high-water mark
with 50 residents in 1910. By 1920 a decline was already taking place and there
were only 18 Eolians left. The post office (whoever named it) was closed by the
end of the Great Depression, but Eolians had a store to buy groceries, a school
to teach their children and a church. Eolian made a comeback in the 1960s when
they matched their 1910 population, but by 1980 it was down to nine - the figure
still in use for 2000.
*
TxDoT includes Stephens County in the Panhandle
Plains regionA
Visit to Eolian,TexasPhotographer's
Note
Remote towns,
just dots on the map, such as Gunsight and Eolian often yield the most interesting
subjects. - Barclay
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