Historical Marker

Flatonia

Flatonia, Fayette County · Texas
Erected 1973

When the railroad town was laid out, the old settlement simply moved to it. Residents of the original Flatonia, a mile southeast, and of Oso, three miles northeast, loaded their homes and businesses onto wagons and hauled them to the tracks, and the 1870 post office came along without changing its name. By 1878 the town had 800 people, living equally on cattle and cotton. Cheap land drew waves of German, Bohemian, Greek, Arab and Italian immigrants. The second railroad brought rival towns, Muldoon and Moulton, and the competition cost Flatonia people by 1900.

What the plaque says

Flatonia Market town for rich agricultural area, on one of this state's earliest railroads (chartered 1841 by the Republic of Texas). Situated on land granted in 1840s to rancher William A. Faires. Germans began to settle here in 1860s, and soon needed a shipping point for their products. Sailing master Friedrich Wilhelm Flato (1820-1899) and his wife Sophie, of the German Colony, had a store about 2 miles south of here. In the 1870s, Czech immigrants arrived, and the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railroad (delayed by Civil War, 1861-65) was built to this point. John Cline, F. W. Flato, John Lattimore, and railroad president T. W. Pierce founded Flatonia on Oct. 16, 1873, naming it for the Flato family. At the same time, adjacent landowners Anton Freytag and James Faires platted Freytag and Faires' additions to the town. Post office opened in 1874. Town was incorporated Nov. 8, 1875. Soon it had churches, a school, cotton gins, a newspaper (The Flatonia "Argus"), a cottonseed oil mill, and other businesses. A casino was built for political gatherings, dances, dramas, and other uses. In 1886, a second railroad, the San Antonio & Aransas Pass, reached here. Throughout its first century, the town has remained industrious, thrifty, and stable. (1973)

Where it stands

29.68760, -97.10779 · Directions

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