Community of Theon
Georgetown, Williamson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Attracted to the rich farm land, immigrants from Austria, Bohemia, Germany, Moravia and Silesia came here in the 1880s-90s. This community grew around a cotton gin built about 1883. A Catholic church and school operated at nearby Corn Hill. A post office, named "Theon" for the Greek "to God", opened in 1890. A rifle club sponsored dances, rifle contests and other socials. Farmers started a beef club, butchered mean monthly and shared it with all families. After the post office and school closed, the cotton gin continued to serve this area.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the 1880s and 90s, immigrants from Austria, Bohemia, Germany, Moravia, and Silesia were drawn to Williamson County's rich blackland farm soil, forming a community that gathered around a cotton gin built about 1883. The 1890 post office took the name Theon, from the Greek for "to God," and social life revolved around a rifle club's dances and contests and a cooperative beef club that butchered and shared meat each month. When the post office and school closed, the gin kept the little farming settlement alive.
Why it matters
Theon captures the Central European immigrant wave that reshaped Central Texas agriculture and gave the region its distinctive Czech and German cultural imprint.
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Themes & tags
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