Nixon
Nixon, Gonzales County, Texas
Marker Inscription
IN 1901, PLANS WERE MADE TO EXTEND THE ROUTE OF THE GALVESTON, HARRISBURG AND SAN ANTONIO (GH&SA) RALROAD TO CONNECT THE SOUTH TEXAS TOWNS OF CUERO AND STOCKDALE. AFTER THE 1904 DEATH OF RANCHER JOHN T. NIXON, HIS WIDOW, LUCINDA, AND THEIR DAUGHTER, ZEDDIE, APPROACHED ATTORNEY AND NEPHEW, ROBERT F. NIXON, TO BROKER A DEAL WITH THE RAILROAD THAT WOULD BENEFIT THE NIXON FAMILY. THE NIXONS PROVIDED LAND FOR A TOWNSITE THAT INCLUDED RIGHT-OF-WAY FOR THE RAILROAD TRACKS AND PROPERTY FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF SHIPPING FACILITIES AND A DEPOT, AND IN ADDITION, EVERY ODD-NUMBERED BLOCK WOULD BE GIVEN TO THE RAILROAD TO SELL FOR PROFIT. IN RETURN, THE RAILROAD PROMISED TO ADVERTISE THE TOWNSITE ACROSS THE UNITED STATES, ENCOURAGING ITS SUCCESS. THE ORIGINAL TOWN SURVEY WAS COMPLETED ON MARCH 2, 1906, AND THE FIRST TOWN LOTS WERE SOLD LATER THAT MONTH. SOON SETTLERS FROM NEARBY COMMUNITIES BEGAN TO MIGRATE TO THE NEW TOWN, AND THEY WERE QUICKLY FOLLOWED BY “OUTSIDERS” WHO POURED IN FROM OTHER TEXAS TOWNS AND FROM LOCATIONS AS FAR AWAY AS ALABAMA AND OHIO. BECAUSE COTTON WAS THE CASH CROP OF THE DAY, MUCH OF THE AREA GRASSLAND WAS PLOWED UNDER SO THAT COTTON COULD BE PLANTED. SOON, THREE COTTON GINS DOTTED THE TOWNSITE OF NIXON. COTTON REMAINED AS THE AREA’S MAIN ECONOMIC EXPORT UNTIL WORLD WAR II, WHEN THE POULTRY INDUSTRY BECAME THE ECONOMIC DRIVER FOR THE AREA. ALTHOUGH THE RAILROAD TRACKS THAT SYMBOLIZE THE CREATION OF NIXON HAVE BEEN REMOVED AND THE COTTON GINS NO LONGER REMAIN, NIXON CONTINUES AS AN IMPORTANT CENTER OF COMMERCE IN GONZALES COUNTY.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Nixon owes its existence to the railroad and to a shrewd family deal. After rancher John T. Nixon died in 1904, his widow Lucinda and daughter Zeddie enlisted his nephew, attorney Robert F. Nixon, to broker terms with the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railroad: the family gave land for a townsite, right-of-way, and depot, while the railroad promised to advertise the new town nationwide. Lots first sold in 1906, cotton gins sprang up across the plowed grassland, and settlers poured in from across Texas and beyond—until poultry replaced cotton as the local economy after World War II.
Why it matters
Nixon is a textbook example of how railroads conjured whole towns out of Texas ranchland at the turn of the century, reshaping who lived where and what they grew.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · John T. Nixon
- · Lucinda Nixon
- · Zeddie Nixon
- · Robert F. Nixon
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Mackey Brick and Tile Manufacturing Company
Floresville, TX
Nelson Mackey was born into a Hudson Valley family where the name was practically a byword for brickmaking, and after ventures in Iowa and Illinois he brought that trade to the San Antonio area in the late 1870s. By 1887 he and partners held land near Calaveras with clay pits and vast woodlots to fire the kilns, a company town with worker housing, tokens, and a store, and a rail spur to carry the buff-colored bricks across south Texas. Mackey bricks built downtown San Antonio landmarks and, in 1891, the state lunatic asylum with seven million of them, before fierce competition sent the business into decline by the time of his death in 1898.
International & Great Northern Railroad in New Braunfels
New Braunfels, TX
New Braunfels residents lobbied for years to draw a railroad, and by 1880 the International & Great Northern rolled its first trains through a new depot. The line transformed the local economy, opening markets for goods and sparking tourism—Helen Gould, daughter of financier Jay Gould, prompted a spur into what became Landa Park. Successive depots culminated in the 1907 station that now houses the New Braunfels Railroad Museum.
Landa Park
New Braunfels, TX
Joseph Landa bought this land around the Comal Springs—the largest springs in the American Southwest—in 1859 and harnessed the Comal River to power gristmills, textile factories, an ice plant, and a brewery, even a Civil War saltpeter works. His son Harry opened Landa's Park as a tourist resort in 1898, and excursion trains soon brought crowds for picnics, dancing, and steamboat rides. After financial troubles closed it, New Braunfels citizens voted overwhelmingly to buy the park in 1936, and WPA crews added lasting improvements.
Bee County
Pettus, TX
Carved largely from San Patricio County in 1857 and organized in 1858, Bee County took its name from Barnard E. Bee, who served the Republic of Texas as secretary of war, secretary of state, and minister to the United States. A cattle region since Spanish colonial times, it became an important beef producer after 1865 and gained its first railroad, the San Antonio and Aransas Pass, in 1886. Oil was discovered here in 1929, and the county seat has been at Beeville since 1860.