Gussettville

Gussettville almost became the county seat. In 1855 frontiersmen gathered under a large live oak there to petition for a county of their own, and when the legislature created Live Oak County in 1856, merchant N. Gussett asked for the seat and offered land for a townsite. Oakville, a new town on Thomas Wilson's donated land, was chosen instead. Gussettville still received a post office in 1858, the county's third, and kept it until 1886. In 1884 it had a church, a school, a store and about thirty residents.

What the plaque says

Gussettville Founded by Irish catholics of McMullen and McGloin colony in 1830's. Called "Fox nation" for the Fox family, was renamed Gussettville in 1850's in honor of N. Gussett, owner of general store. First Catholic church in Live Oak County built here 1874. Land for church and part of the cemetery was given by Thomas Shannon and his wife Anne. A stagecoach stop on San Antonio-Brownsville line, town prospered until by-passed by railroad. Typical of hundreds of early towns that faded as train service diverted traffic. Church is chief remaining structure. (1967)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lake Corpus Christi State Park — 19 mi
  A lake park in the South Texas brush country above Mathis, on a reservoir of the Nueces, with a Civilian Conservation Corps refectory and more than 200 bird species.
• Choke Canyon State Park — 23 mi
  A reservoir state park on the Frio River in two units, built after a 1982 dam, with birds, alligators and fishing on land people have crossed for more than 10,000 years.
• Lipantitlán State Historic Site — 27 mi
  Five undeveloped acres on the Nueces named for the Lipan Apaches who camped here, where Mexico built an earth-and-rail fort that Texans took early in the Revolution.

More markers nearby

• Site of Fort Merrill — 3.3 mi
• Live Oak County — 4.8 mi
• City of George West — 5.3 mi
• Early Schools in Live Oak County — 5.5 mi