Town of Fashing

Fashing's name changed twice. The farm town began as Hickok, was then Hindenburg, and had become Fashing by 1920 for Fashion tobacco and, the Handbook of Texas adds, the German word Fasching, carnival. Most residents were of German descent. In 1930 the district built a separate school for Hispanic children, a segregated building used until the two schools combined in 1947. The common school district joined Karnes City in 1958, and the Fashing school closed in 1988. In 1972 the community was proclaimed Grand Champion Rural Community of Texas.

What the plaque says

Town of Fashing Near the Old San Patricio Trail, leading from San Antonio to McMullen and McGloin colony, in area of Gulf of Mexico. In this vicinity were stage stops at Belle Branch, Rock Spring, Rountree's, and Tordilla. Land was part of the Butler, Hickok, Tom and Rountree ranches. Town was platted in 1915 as "Hickok." However, after the U.S. Post Office Department disapproved that name, the tag on a popular tobacco -- "Fashion" -- inspired adoption of the name "Fashing" for the town. First schoolhouse was built in 1917; a second, 1921. The Methodist church, organized 1922, erected first house of worship (building moved in from Bastrop) in 1925. In 1934, St. Elizabeth Catholic Church was built. The Martin Luther Lutheran Church was erected 1948. Present school building was completed in 1952. A center for mineral development. First local oil production was from Weigang Field, 1946. Tordilla Hill (5 mi. N) was site of first major uranium discovery in Texas in 1954. After further petroleum strikes in Fashing Edwards Limestone Field, 1958, gas and sulfur processing plants were built by the Elcor Chemical Co., Lone Star Producing Co., Sinclair Oil and Gas Co., and Warren Petroleum Corp. Currently, the only commercial uranium operation in Texas is near here. (1968)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Panna Maria — 19 mi
  The Silesian village on a plateau above the San Antonio River that claims the oldest permanent Polish settlement in America, with a church of 1878 and a ceiling found again in 2000.
• Longhorn Museum — 24 mi
  Atascosa County in one roadside museum: longhorn-and-mustang ranching, a moved railroad depot and caboose, a horse-drawn hearse and the town that calls itself the birthplace of the cowboy.
• Choke Canyon State Park — 25 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.
• Atascosa County Courthouse — 26 mi
  The only surviving Mission Revival courthouse in Texas, built in 1912-13 on Jourdanton's town circle after a county seat vote that some residents still call a theft.

More markers nearby

• Gregorio Cortez — 9.9 mi
• Town of Whitsett — 14 mi
• Karnes County — 16 mi
• Karnes City — 16 mi