Hackberry
Hallettsville, Lavaca County, Texas
Marker Inscription
THE HACKBERRY COMMUNITY WAS ESTABLISHED BY GERMAN IMMIGRANT LUDWIG EDUARD NEUHAUS, WHO CAME TO TEXAS IN 1846, SETTLING IN NORTHERN LAVACA COUNTY. HE ENCOURAGED AND SPONSORED OTHER GERMAN IMMIGRANTS TO SETTLE IN HACKBERRY; AMONG THOSE THAT JOINED HIM WERE HIS BROTHERS, FRANZ AND HERMANN. LUDWIG’S VISION WAS TO BRING GERMANS TO THE AREA WHO COULD CONTRIBUTE TO AND AUGMENT ITS GERMAN POPULATION. LOCATED ALONG THE GONZALES-SAN FELIPE ROAD, A VITAL ROUTE RUNNING ACROSS NORTHERN LAVACA COUNTY, THE SETTLEMENT EXPERIENCED STEADY GROWTH. BY THE 1850s, THE COMMUNITY WAS THRIVING. IT HAD A SAW MILL, GRIST MILL, AND A GENERAL STORE, WHICH LUDWIG NEUHAUS AND HIS WIFE, AUGUSTE, RAN OUT OF THEIR HOME. A METHODIST CHURCH, WHICH WAS ALSO USED AS A SCHOOL, WAS ESTABLISHED IN 1861. ALSO IN THAT YEAR, THE TOWN RECEIVED A POST OFFICE AND WAS OFFICIALLY NAMED HACKBERRY FOR THE TREES LOCATED ON NEUHAUS’ PROPERTY. HACKBERRY PROVIDED DAILY STAGES TO HALLETTSVILLE AND SCHULENBURG, AND ALSO FEATURED A DANCE HALL, SLAUGHTER HOUSE AND DIPPING VAT. AREA SETTLERS INCLUDED LARGE PLANTATION OWNER W.G. FOLEY AND JAMES W. ROBINSON, WHO WAS PROVISIONAL GOVERNOR OF TEXAS IN 1836. IN THE LATE 1800s, HACKBERRY BEGAN TO DECLINE WHEN A RAILROAD BYPASSED THE TOWN. THE POPULATION DROPPED QUICKLY. IN 1935, THE NEUHAUS GENERAL STORE CLOSED. ONLY A FEW STRUCTURES REMAINED AS VESTIGES OF THE COMMUNITY. TODAY, HACKBERRY REMAINS A LINK TO THE AREA’S PAST AS AN AGRICULTURAL COMMUNITY VITAL TO LAVACA COUNTY’S DEVELOPMENT.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
German immigrant Ludwig Eduard Neuhaus reached Texas in 1846 and drew fellow Germans, including his brothers, to settle northern Lavaca County along the Gonzales–San Felipe Road. By the 1850s Hackberry thrived with a saw mill, grist mill, general store, church, and dance hall, taking its name in 1861 from the hackberry trees on Neuhaus's land. When a railroad bypassed the town late in the century, it faded to a few remaining structures.
Why it matters
Hackberry is a window into the German immigrant wave that shaped rural Central Texas, and into how the coming of the railroad could make or break a nineteenth-century town.
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Related people
- · Ludwig Eduard Neuhaus
- · James W. Robinson
Themes & tags
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