Historical Marker
Town of Whitsett
Whitsett, Live Oak County · Texas
Erected 1973
Whitsett was named by a coin toss. When the railroad reached the county in 1913, Taylor Whitsett and Walter Reiffert each donated land for the town, and each wanted it named for himself. Whitsett won the toss. The railroad built cattle pens that year. A diesel engine supplied electricity from 1938 until rural electric lines arrived in 1943, and the highway through town had been the Old Spanish Trail before it became Texas Highway 66, then 9, and finally U.S. 281. A refinery built in 1933 was abandoned soon afterward.
What the plaque says
Town of Whitsett Situated on 1835 land grant of Mexico to John Houlihan. At this site in 1800's was water and a camp for cross-country drives of cattle, hogs. Town arose in 1913 when San Antonio, Uvalde & Gulf railroad was built here and post office opened. Named for ranch family donating right of way and townsite. Soon shipped steers by thousands to northern markets. International fame began 1924 when H.A. Coffey acquired 125 bee colonies, bred and sold queens. Besides beekeeping, area has oil and uranium production; farming; horse and cattle ranching; rock-gems and game hunting; fishing. (1973)
Where it stands
28.63317, -98.27115 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Choke Canyon State Park — 12 miA 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 miThe 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.
- Longhorn Museum — 27 miAtascosa 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.
- Panna Maria — 32 miThe 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.