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The Rek Family
were early settlers and the town was named for them. Hearing the
name before seeing a sign leads one to believe it is "Wreck Hill"
and that some monstrous accident crashed its way into the local
history. There's a hill though and it's possible and even likely
that Rek Hill has had their share of wrecks.
In 2000 the only businesses in Rek Hill were an antique shop and
a feed store. The school has been part of the Fayetteville
school system since the 1950s.
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History in
a Pecan Shell
By Carolyn
Heinsohn
Located three miles east of Fayetteville,
the community was founded in 1883 by Ignac Rek and Jerry Roland, who
purchased 50 acres of land.
Rek's children helped him clear the land, which had plentiful amounts
of wild game plus abundant fish in Cummins Creek.
Other settlers moved in on the higher ridge, while the fertile creek
bottom was used for farming. Some of the Czech families were the Knebliks,
Orsaks, Kovars, Bacas, Zapalacs and Konvickas. Two German families
were the Kurtzes and Muellers.
A school called Slovan-Bordovice was built in 1895 on Kovar and Kneblik
land. Bordovice, Moravia was the village of origin of some of the
settlers, so the community was also called Bordovice by some.
Paul Kneblik built a store in 1892; a cotton gin was built in 1895
by Louis Mueller, and in 1908, John Rek, the son of Ignac Rek, built
a blacksmith shop and helped build a store for his brother, Ignac,
Jr., whose daughter, Betty, and husband, Ernest Watson, purchased
the store in the mid-1940s and operated it for a number of years.
A few other businesses have been operated there throughout the years,
with the last being an antique store. |
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As
an antique store in 2001
TE photo, 2001 |
Rek Hill Store
in 1936
Photo courtesy Annie Mae Janisch, submitted by Carolyn
Heinsohn |
Rek, Texas
by David
Knape
There was a town
that was called Rek,
it's a ghost town now
in sad neglect,
its name a joke
I would suspect,
there weren't no wrecks
at all in Rek.
*The town was actually Rek Hill, but I used my poetic license.
© d.knape |
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