Elroy
Elroy, Travis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Swedish and German immigrants began to settle in this area in the 1890s. A post office was established in 1898, and by 1918 there were about 70 families in the area. The community, whose economy was based on cotton farming, consisted of homes, farms, a school, four cotton gins, a blacksmith shop, general store, and three Swedish churches with cemeteries. After a period of decline beginning in the 1930s. The school was consolidated with the Del Valle school district, and the churches disbanded. Renewed settlement and revitalization of the area began in the 1970s. (1991)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Swedish and German immigrants began putting down roots in this stretch of Travis County in the 1890s, drawn by land suited to cotton. By 1918 some seventy families supported a school, four cotton gins, a blacksmith, a general store, and three Swedish churches with their own cemeteries. Decline set in during the 1930s as the school consolidated and congregations disbanded, but renewed settlement began breathing life back into the area in the 1970s.
Why it matters
Elroy captures the immigrant farming communities that quietly built rural Texas — and the boom-and-bust cycle of the cotton economy that made and unmade so many of them.
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