Site of Old Town of Union Valley
Nixon, Wilson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(Settled in 1860s) Original schoolhouse of logs on site given by Harriet Smith Beaty in 1872 to trustees John Coleman, King Holstein, and Samuel McCracken, was replaced 1877 by a frame one on William Cone land, serving as Masonic hall, church, court room. Union post office opened 1883. Stores, gins, saloons, blacksmith and butcher shops were owned by men named Burnside, Cone, Creech, Dunn, Hightower, Hoy, Hudson, Irvin, Johnson, Murray, Magee, Patterson, Spear, Treadwell, Watkins, Wiley, and Wright. Town dwindled when bypassed in 1906 by Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railroad. (1972)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Settled in the 1860s, Union Valley grew around a log schoolhouse donated in 1872 that also served as Masonic hall, church, and courtroom — the multipurpose civic heart of a frontier settlement. A post office opened in 1883, and stores, cotton gins, saloons, and smithies bearing a roll call of pioneer family names lined its streets. Like so many rural towns, it faded after the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railroad bypassed it in 1906.
Why it matters
Union Valley's fate captures a defining pattern of American settlement — how the coming or absence of the railroad could make or unmake a town almost overnight.
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Related people
- · Harriet Smith Beaty
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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