LaVernia, Texas

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LaVernia is a town in Texas, located 30 miles southeast of San Antonio. La Vernia Texas is located in the Northwestern part of Wilson County on the south bank of Cibolo Creek at the junction of U.S. Highway 87 and Farm Road 775, fifteen miles north of Floresville the county seat in northern Wilson County. The town was first settled around 1850. W. R. Wiseman of Mississippi, who organized a Presbyterian church at the site around 1851. He named the settlement Live Oak Grove for a nearby grove of live oak trees. The early settler William Claiborne Rector, more commonly known as Claiborne Rector owned most of the land which became present day La Vernia. One day Rector was riding a mule up the road just above the old rock house on the highway with a white boy and a slave, when Native Americans jumped out of the brush, scalped the slave, captured the white boy and took him with them. But Rector escaped unharmed. He built the first house in the town out of post oak logs and the town became known as Post Oak. Rector was also the first postmaster of Post Oak. He kept horses for the stage that ran four times daily. This route went down the old Spanish Chihuahua Road which passed through La Vernia and ran from Indianola to San Antonio. From there, it connected with the San Diego Mail Line to California. The small settlement was called Post Oak until a government mail service was started in February of 1853 and they discovered that there was an earlier town called Post Oak in Jack County. The name of the community was then changed to La Vernia in 1859. Several families from Mississippi settled on plantations in this part of Wilson County. One of these early settlers, Mr. James Newton, owned a plantation just across the Cibolo Creek. He built log cabins there for his slaves. These cabins extended from his home on the hill, all the way down the fence row to the Cibolo Creek. The first cemetery was located where Koepp's now stands. A few bodies were later moved to Concrete Cemetery but most of the graves remain there unmarked. Concrete Cemetery was created from land donated for a free public cemetery by James Newton. La Vernia's first church was built sometime in 1836 following the Texas Revolution. The old rock church stood where the Concrete Cemetery is now. Old Graves were in the church yard. Lavernia is the site of the Brahan Lodge, the oldest Masonic Lodge in Texas. The Structure, which is of red sand stone and two stories high can be seen at the right of the highway about half a mile just in the western outskirts of town. The lodge was named for Major Howard Brahan. The Masonic Lodge was built to serve three purposes, the Lodge owned the building and maintained its meeting place on the second floor, but the first floor was constructed for public worship and school purposes. German and Polish immigration to La Vernia had increased the population to 110 by 1885. By this time La Vernia had three churches, a steam gristmill, and a cotton gin. H. Suhre, owner of the general store. In 1890 La Vernia had a population of 200. Construction of the San Antonio and Gulf Railroad across the area in 1893 brought the population of La Vernia to 343 by 1900. A two-teacher school was in operation by 1896, with an enrollment was sixty-six students. In 1915 the town had two cotton gins, a bank, four churches, a pottery plant, a brick works, and a population of 500. In 1947 it had seventeen businesses. In 1965 it had 700 residents and twenty-five businesses. The community incorporated around 1980 and in 1990 had a population of 639 and thirty-six businesses. In 2000 La Vernia had 136 businesses and a population of 931.

[edit] Sources

• "Texas Centennial, History of Wilson County, Wilson County Centennial Committee.
• "History of Lavernia" By Amber M. Middleton.
• "History of Brahan Lodge, Lavernia Texas.
• "Lavernia, Texas By Claudia Hazelwood.