History in
a Pecan Shell
Although
Anglo settlement here dates from the late 1830s (making it a contempory
of [relatively nearby] San
Felipe), it didn't develop until the late 1870s with the arrival
of German immigrants.
Then known as Reckville, the spot became a flag stop (meaning
trains would stop only when flagged) alongside the tracks of the
Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe (Sealy-Eagle
Lake spur) in the 1880s.
Without enough people for a post office (its mail was routed through
Sealy) and located on a river
that today is barely more than a trickle of water over a sandy bed,
the deck seemed stacked againt poor Reckville. Somewhere along the
line, the spelling was changed to Rexville.
By the 1950s,
all that was left of Rexville/ Reckville were some farm buildings.
The town-that-might-have-been is today remembered by an Austin county
road of the same name and it's appearance on old maps.
Rexville was
suggested for inclusion in our ghost town coverage by Robert Brooks.
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