F.W. Flato
Flatonia, Fayette County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Born on February 22, 1820, in Bremen, Germany, F.W. Flato immigrated to Texas in 1846 and settled in Austin County. Flato and his wife, Sophia Welhausen, moved to southwestern Fayette County by 1866 where they operated a successful mercantile business. Eventually, the town was named Flatonia in his honor and he became its postmaster. When the GH&SA Railway approached Fayette County in 1873, Flato helped negotiate the move of the town closer to the rail line. Ever the entrepreneur, Flato built a brick factory and a steam saw mill, but was best known for his work promoting land sales to immigrants settling the area along the new rail line. After a final move to Kendall County, Flato died on May 18, 1899, and is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Flatonia.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Born in Bremen, Germany, in 1820, F.W. Flato immigrated to Texas in 1846 and by 1866 had settled in southwestern Fayette County, where he and his wife ran a thriving mercantile business. When the GH&SA Railway approached in 1873, Flato helped negotiate moving the town closer to the tracks, and the community — renamed Flatonia in his honor, with Flato as postmaster — grew around the line. An energetic entrepreneur, he built a brick factory and steam sawmill and promoted land sales to the immigrants pouring in along the new railroad.
Why it matters
Flato's career shows how German immigrant merchants and the coming of the railroad together conjured whole towns out of the Texas prairie in the decades after the Civil War.
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Related people
- · F.W. Flato
- · Sophia Welhausen Flato
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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