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History in
a Pecan Shell
Sodville dates
from the early 1900s when local ranchs were subdivided into small
farms and sold by the George H. Paul Land Company.
A school was built in 1908 that shared its space with a Union Sunday
School.
The town gained a store by 1910 and the Sodville Baptist Church organized
four years later.
A brick school was built in the late 1930s. At its peak, Sodville’s
school district enrolled over 300 students before merging with Sinton’s
schools after WWII.
In the early 1960s with its membership in decline, the Baptist Church
disbanded. The population was reported under 50 residents in the 1980s
and the town is now known as a dispersed rural community.
Photographer's Note:
Subject: Sodville, Texas
Located in San Patricio County, 3 miles West of Taft
& about 6 miles SE of Sinton at the
intersections of FM roads 1944 & 1074. A few homes & a couple of barns
are all that's left to be seen. The landscape has changed greatly
in the last couple of months as a large Windfarm has made it's home
in the Sodville area. - William
Beauchamp, June 2009 |
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Sodville Farmers
Gin Co.
Vintage
photo courtesy of the Taft Blackland Museum
See Cotton | Cotton
Gins |
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Historical Marker:
Sodville Community
George H. Paul,
a land developer from Iowa, joined forces with the giant Coleman-Fulton
Pasture Company in 1907 and 1908 to sell 56,000 acres of land for
a development. Mexican migrant laborers cleared the area of brush,
which was so thick that prospective buyers had to mark their paths.
Sodville was probably named for its fertile soil when the real estate
agency was creating promotional literature for prospective buyers
in the midwest. Land sold at a steady pace, and in 1908 there were
enough children in the area to prompt T. F. Harwood to donate land
on which to build the Sodville school.
By 1910 Mynier's store served the community. A Union church met in
the schoolhouse, brush arbors and other locations. Hall Industries
of Beeville bought Mynier's interest in the store and built two cotton
gins in the area. The company later sold its interest in Sodville
to W. A. Dunn, whose store and the corner on which it stood became
community institutions. The Sodville Baptist Church organized in 1914
and the congregation met in its own building by 1916. In 1919-1920
T. F. Harwood donated more land to the school, and the Sodville Independent
School District formed. By the 1930s Sodville had about 50 residents
and three businesses; the roads were paved. A brick schoolhouse was
erected in 1938.
As people left farms and rural areas for cities in the second half
of the 20th century, the population of communities such as Sodville
declined. The school district was consolidated with Sinton
schools in 1947; Dunn's store closed in the mid-1950s. The Sodville
Baptist Church disbanded in 1961. Dunn's corner, near this site, and
a few homes were all that remained of the Sodville community at the
end of the 20th century.
(2000) |
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