Riesel

Riesel went through three names before settling. The Houston and Texas Central built a sectionhouse called Roddy about 1880, a post office called Prospect opened in 1890, and in 1891 the name became Riesel for gin owner W. H. Riesel. The Riesel Breeze began in 1896 and was later renamed the Riesel Rustler. That year the town had a hotel, two general stores, a dry goods store, two groceries and two lumberyards. Banks opened in 1906 and 1910, and in 1938 the Texas Department of Agriculture placed an experiment station just east of town.

What the plaque says

Riesel Fertile soil, good water,and available rial transportation attracted cotton farmers to this area after the Civil War. They were soon joined by German settlers from Washington County led by the Rev. Friedrick Von Schleumbach. A nearby postal station known as Roddy first served the area, but a town developed here following construction of a cotton gin by William Henry Riesel in 1890. The townsite of Riesel was platted by the Rev. Von Schleumbach and the new settlement grew as an early agricultural center of southeastern McLennan County. (1986)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Armstrong Browning Library — 12 mi
  A three-story Italian Renaissance library on the Baylor campus built to hold A. J. Armstrong's Browning collection, dedicated in December 1951 and now, by its own account, the world's largest of Browning material.
• Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum — 13 mi
  The official state repository of Texas Ranger memorabilia, opened in 1968 in Fort Fisher Park on the Brazos, named for a Ranger post of 1837 whose site no one has located.
• Dr Pepper Museum — 13 mi
  The 1906 bottling plant of the Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Company, built where Dr Pepper outgrew a Waco drugstore soda fountain, now the Dr Pepper Museum.
• Waco Suspension Bridge — 13 mi
  A Brazos crossing opened in January 1870 as the longest single-span suspension bridge west of the Mississippi, tolled until 1889, closed to vehicles in 1971 and now walked.

More markers nearby

• Friedens Evangelical and Reformed United Church of Christ — steps away
• Judge Albert G. and Harriet Elizabeth Grimes Perry — 5.3 mi
• Indian Battlefield — 5.3 mi
• Torrey's Trading Post No. 2 — 5.5 mi