HARWOOD, TEXAS

Gonzales County, Central Texas South

29°39'57"N 97°30'19"W (29.6657863, -97.5052724)
Highway 90
1 mile N of I-10
N of Gonzales the county seat
E of Luling
About 60 miles E of San Antonio
Population: 112 est. (2000)

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Harwood Post Office, TX 78632
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, February 2011
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History in a Pecan Shell

The town came into being as the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railroad moved west in the 1870s. The town’s namesake was Gonzales lawyer Thomas Moore Harwood. First named Mule Creek, after a local watercourse, a post office operated from 1872 through 1874 under that name on the Gonzales to Lockhart stage route (just west of the present location). When the railroad arrived, the new post office opened in the new town under it’s new name.

With 300 residents by 1915, Harwood became a respectable town with most essential business. With the railroad and two cotton gins, Harwood became a center of cotton processing and shipping.

Postwar highway improvements allowed people to leave the town for better paying jobs and a slow decline set in – reducing the population to 112 for the 1990 census.

Harwood, Texas Landmarks & Images:

Closed Little Zion Church NE of Harwood Tx

Little Zion Church NE of Harwood
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson December 2006

Approaching Little Zion Church
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson December 2006

The closed Little Zion Church
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson December 2006
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Little Zion Cemetery NE of Harwood
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson December 2006
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Harwood Hardware Store
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson December 2006

A closed store in Harwood
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson December 2006
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Take a road trip

Harwood, Texas Nearby Towns:
Gonzales the county seat
Luling
San Antonio
See Gonzales County | Central Texas South

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