Shiner Facts & Figures
County: Lavaca State: Texas Zip Code: 77984 Country: USA Area Code: 361 Time Zone: Central (Standard Time: GMT -6 hours, DST: GMT -5 hours). Latitude: 29.4297 North Longitude: 97.1715 West Elevation: 368 feet Land area: 2.4 square miles Maps: Aerial Photo: TerraServer Area Code Map: NANPA Topographical Map: TopoZone Area Map: MapQuest Nearest city with pop. 50,000+: Victoria, TX (44.2 miles, pop. 60,603). Nearest city with pop. 200,000+: Austin, TX (72.0 miles, pop. 656,562). Nearest city with pop. 1,000,000+: San Antonio, TX (92.1 miles, pop. 1,144,646). Nearest cities: Yoakum, TX (9.8 miles), Moulton, TX (10.1 miles), Hallettsville, TX (15.9 miles), Flatonia, TX (18.3 miles), Gonzales, TX (19.7 miles), Waelder, TX (20.1 miles), Cuero, TX (24.7 miles), Schulenburg, TX (25.1 miles). Hospitals/medical centers near Shiner: Yoakum Community Hospital (About 13 Miles; Yoakum, TX) Memorial Hospital (About 21 Miles; Gonzales, TX) Gonzales Warm Springs Rehab Hospital (About 21 Miles; Gonzales, TX) Several other regional hospitals (About 45 Miles; Victoria, TX) Airports Certified For Carrier Operations Nearest To Shiner: Victoria Regional (About 44 Miles; Victoria, TX; ID: Vct) Austin-Bergstrom Intl (About 62 Miles; Austin, TX; ID: Aus) San Antonio Intl (About 90 Miles; San Antonio, TX; ID: Sat) Other Public-Use Airports Nearest To Shiner: Yoakum Muni (About 10 Miles; Yoakum, TX; ID: T85) Hallettsville Muni (About 16 Miles; Hallettsville, TX; ID: 34R) Gonzales Muni (About 21 Miles; Gonzales, TX; ID: T20) Colleges/Universities With Over 2000 Students Nearest To Shiner: Victoria College (About 45 Miles; Victoria, TX; Full-Time Enrollment: 2,511) Southwest Texas State University (About 62 Miles; San Marcos, TX; Ft Enrollment: 18,822) Saint Edward's University (About 70 Miles; Austin, TX; Ft Enrollment: 2,870) The University Of Texas At Austin (About 71 Miles; Austin, TX; Ft Enrollment: 46,503) Austin Community College (About 73 Miles; Austin, TX; Ft Enrollment: 12,819) Blinn College (About 75 Miles; Brenham, TX; Ft Enrollment: 8,448) Wharton County Junior College (About 76 Miles; Wharton, TX; Ft Enrollment: 3,124) Public High School In Shiner: Shiner H S (Students: 240; Location: 216 W 13th St; Grades: 07 - 12) Public Primary/Middle School In Shiner: Shiner Elementary (Students: 298; Location: 216 W 13th; Grades: PK - 6) Private High School In Shiner: St Paul High School (Students: 65; Location: 424 St Ludmila; Grades: 9 - 12) Private Primary/Middle School In Shiner: St Ludmila Elementary (Students: 195; Location: 424 St Ludmila; Grades: PK - 8) Library In Shiner: Shiner Public Library (Operating Income: $53,862; Location: 115 E Wolters 2nd St; 9,925 Books; 233 Audio Materials; 701 Video Materials; 55 Serial Subscriptions) Strongest AM radio stations in Shiner: KTKR (760 AM; 50 kW; SAN ANTONIO, TX; Owner: CCB TEXAS LICENSES, L.P.) WOAI (1200 AM; 50 kW; SAN ANTONIO, TX; Owner: CCB TEXAS LICENSES, L.P.) KKYX (680 AM; 50 kW; SAN ANTONIO, TX; Owner: CXR HOLDINGS, INC.) KCTA (1030 AM; 50 kW; CORPUS CHRISTI, TX; Owner: BROADCASTING CORPORATION OF THE SOUTHWEST) KTMR (1130 AM; daytime; 10 kW; EDNA, TX; Owner: SIGA BROADCASTING CORPORATION) KSAH (720 AM; 10 kW; UNIVERSAL CITY, TX; Owner: KSAH LICENSING, INC.) KILE (1560 AM; 50 kW; BELLAIRE, TX; Owner: THE RAFTT CORPORATION) KTRH (740 AM; 50 kW; HOUSTON, TX; Owner: AMFM TEXAS LICENSES LIMITED PARTNERSHIP) KCTI (1450 AM; 1 kW; GONZALES, TX; Owner: GONZALES COMMUNICATIONS A TX LTD PTN) KQQA (1530 AM; 10 kW; CREEDMOOR, TX; Owner: YELLOW ROSE COMMUNICATIONS, INC.) KGOL (1180 AM; 50 kW; HUMBLE, TX; Owner: ENTRAVISION HOLDINGS, LLC) KENS (1160 AM; 25 kW; SAN ANTONIO, TX; Owner: KENS-TV, INC.) KLBJ (590 AM; 5 kW; AUSTIN, TX; Owner: EMMIS AUSTIN RADIO BROADCASTING COMPANY, L.P.) Strongest FM radio stations in Shiner: KYKM (92.5 FM; YOAKUM, TX; Owner: LAGRANGE BROADCASTING CORPORATION) KTXM (99.9 FM; HALLETTSVILLE, TX; Owner: LAGRANGE BROADCASTING CORPORATION) KQQT (106.3 FM; GONZALES, TX; Owner: CENTRAL TEXAS RADIO, INC.) KROX-FM (101.5 FM; BUDA, TX; Owner: EMMIS AUSTIN RADIO BROADCASTING COMPANY, L.P.) TV broadcast stations around Shiner: KAVU-TV (Channel 25; VICTORIA, TX; Owner: SAGA BROADCASTING, LLC)
Population Info
Population (year 2000): 2,070, Est. population in July 2002: 2,032 (-1.8% change) Males: 926 (44.7%) Females: 1,144 (55.3%) Races in Shiner: White Non-Hispanic (82.2%) Black (10.9%) Hispanic ( 6.1%) Other race ( 1.9%) Two or more races ( 1.3%) (Total can be greater than 100% because Hispanics could be counted in other races) Ancestries: Czech (30.4%), German (20.0%), United States (7.0%), English (6.3%), Irish (3.9%), Scotch-Irish (2.9%). For population 25 years and over in Shiner: High school or higher: (72.6%) Bachelor's degree or higher: (16.0%) Graduate or professional degree: ( 4.7%) Unemployed: ( 0.3%) Mean travel time to work: 19.6 minutes For population 15 years and over in Shiner city: Never married: 17.9% Now married: 55.9% Separated: 0.8% Widowed: 15.2% Divorced: 10.2% 0.3% Foreign born Median resident age: 44.7 years Median household income: $28,205 (year 2000) Median house value: $49,600 (year 2000) Shiner compared to Texas state average: Unemployed percentage significantly below state average. Black race population percentage above state average. Hispanic race population percentage significantly above state average. Median age above state average. Foreign-born population percentage significantly below state average. Renting percentage below state average. Length of stay since moving in above state average. Institutionalized population percentage above state average. Number of college students significantly below state average.
Weather & Climate Data
Average weather in Shiner, Texas
Based on data reported by over 4,000 weather stations
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Average temp. (°F) 51.7 55.5 62.7 68.7 75.5 80.9 83.7 83.6 79.2 70.9 61.0 53.5 High temperature (°F) 62.2 66.4 73.5 79.4 85.3 90.6 94.3 94.6 89.9 82.1 71.6 64.0 Low temperature (°F) 41.2 44.5 51.7 57.9 65.8 71.1 73.0 72.6 68.4 59.7 50.4 43.0 Precipitation (in) 2.7 2.3 2.4 3.1 5.5 4.6 1.9 2.8 3.9 4.1 3.2 2.7 Normal climate around Shiner, Texas
Based on data reported by main weather stations
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Days with precip. 8 7 7 6 7 8 6 8 9 7 7 8 Wind speed (mph) 10.0 10.5 11.1 11.3 10.4 9.6 8.9 8.2 8.4 8.7 9.3 9.6 Morning humidity (%) 85 85 85 87 90 91 90 90 90 88 87 85 Afternoon humidity (%) 67 64 61 63 65 64 60 60 63 61 63 66 Sunshine (%) 47 50 56 57 58 68 73 73 67 64 54 48 Days clear of clouds 8 7 8 6 5 6 8 8 9 11 9 8 Partly cloudy days 6 6 7 8 11 15 15 15 12 10 7 6 Cloudy days 17 15 17 16 15 9 8 8 10 10 14 18 Snowfall (in) 0.2 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
History of Shiner
In the valley between the Lavaca and Guadalupe rivers, it began as an Indian settlement called "Half Moon." It was a place of ranchers and cattle, the railroad and Indians, outlaws and Texas Rangers -- and cotton was "King." Texas roots run deep in Shiner, Texas.
George West, one of the first to drive cattle in this part of Texas, was married to a Shiner - and Henry B. Shiner donated the land for the town of Shiner to have its start in 1887.
Shiner is at the intersection of U.S. Highway 90A and State Highway 95, fourteen miles west of Hallettsville in western Lavaca County. In 1885, a post office called Half Moon was opened at a trading post near the present site of Shiner. When the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway came to the area in 1887, it bypassed Half Moon and built through land owned by Henry B. Shiner. Shiner donated 250 acres for a right-of-way and depot, and a town soon grew around the new transportation facilities. At first, the community was called New Half Moon, but in 1888 its name was changed to Shiner. Shiner was incorporated in 1890, and L.P. Amsler was elected the first mayor.
Czech and German immigrants soon became the dominant ethnic groups, and Shiner developed a cohesive Czech community through social organizations such as the National Sokol Society and the Slavonic Benevolent Order of the State of Texas. The population was reported at 2,213 in 1986. The town supports a weekly newspaper, the Gazette, which was established in 1892. The most important agricultural products are dairy and beef cattle, cotton, and corn. Shiner has industries that manufacture wire, racks, dye, and tool plating.
The Spoetzl brewery produces 25,000 barrels of Shiner Beer annually. It is the only Texas brewery whose products are made, bought, and consumed entirely within the state. In 1990 the population was 2,074.
The Lavaca River marks the boundary between the Stephen F. Austin Colony and the Green DeWitt Colony lands. By 1831 Stephen F. Austin had assigned 12 families to lands on the north side of the river. Green DeWitt settled 21 families on the south side of the river. Together these families established Lavaca County’s first small farms and stock ranches.
A Texas Historical marker in Moulton marks a camp site of the General Sam Houston and his Texas Army during their retreat from Santa Anna’s troops at Gonzales and a roadside park 9 miles north of Hallettsville is near where they crossed Rocky Creek prior to their victory at San Jacinto.
Lavaca County has markers for seven veterans of the San Jacinto Battle. The William Green pioneer home built in 1835 and moved to Shiner and offers a glimpse of colonial and pioneer life. The Wild Game Supper held at Hallettsville in January offers Squirrel Stew, Venison Steak and other early Texan fare.
Ranching
After the Civil War cotton production declined and cattle ranching took center stage in Lavaca County. A room at the Edwin Wolters Memorial Museum at Shiner is devoted to the County’s ranching heritage. In more recent years Yoakum has become a center for the production of leather goods and the leather room at the Yoakum Heritage Museum featuring hand-tooled leather is a “must see.”
The area around Yoakum was once gathering place for cattle bound for the railroad heads in Kansas.
German-Czech-Moravian
Between 1870 and 1900 increasing numbers of German, Moravian and Czech immigrants settled in Lavaca County settling new ethnic farm communities including Glecker, Breslau, Witting, Moravia and Vienna. By 1900 a wide range of German and Czech newspapers were being published.
Exhibits at the Louis Ehlers Cigar Factory in Shiner include a tobacco shredder, cigar molds, boxes, labels, smoker’s pipes, photos and other memorabilia from the factory.
Tours of the Spoetzel Brewery at Shiner are available Monday through Friday at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Drop in the Moravia Store (14 miles north of Hallettsville) to quaff a cool one, a game of dominoes or a turn on a wooden dance floor.
Texas has about 20 painted churches, three are in Lavaca County: Saints Cyril and Methodius in Shiner, Ascension of Our Lord Catholic Church at Moravia and St. Mary’s Church in the St. Mary’s community in Halletsville. Services are held daily at the Hallettsville Church.
Attend a service at either of these two churches, marvel at their interior painting and you will know how important these churches were to their builders. They were featured among others in a PBS documentary,
“The Painted Churches of Texas, Echoes of the Homeland.”
St. Mary’s Church in Hallettsville is worth a visit too. There are Czech details throughout its interior. Hallettsville’s annual Kolache Fest occurs the last Saturday of September and features a kolacheeating contest, a domino tournament, biergarten and more.
If you love to polka check out the Moulton Polka Fest or the South Texas Polka and Sausage Fest in Hallettsville. Both are held in March. The Falling Leaves Polka fest at Hallettsville is set for Oct. 26. The Shiner Half Moon Days the first full weekend in July offers a Volksmarch.
Other
The Gaslight Theater in Shiner offers good food and comedy productions. Phone (361) 594-4180 for schedule and to make reservations.
Baseball became a popular sport after the Civil War and the Lavaca Historical Museum at Hallettsville has an exhibit on local baseball teams.
Hallettsville is the host for the Texas State Championship “42” Domino Tournament in March and the State Championship Fiddler’s Frolic in April. Phone (361) 798- 2662 for details.
The Alton C. Allen Symposium set for Oct. 25 will offer speakers on the theme of Civil War Records. Phone Doug Kubicek at (361) 798- 4280 for details.
The Edwin Wolters Memorial Museum at Shiner offers exhibits on natural history (alligator jaws, egg specimens, and a mineral-rock collection), military topics (World War I and II and more), ranching (items used on trail drives) farming implements, antique dolls, a photo archive and genealogical
Handbook of Texas Online: LAVACA COUNTY, TX http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/LL/hcl5.html
LAVACA COUNTY. Lavaca County is on U.S. highways 77 and Alternate 90 east of San Antonio in the Claypan area of southeast Central Texas. The center of the county is at approximately 29°25' north latitude and 96°55' west longitude, near the county seat, Hallettsville. The county is bounded on the north by Fayette County, on the east by Colorado and Jackson counties, on the south by Victoria County, and on the west by DeWitt and Gonzales counties. Lavaca County consists of 971 square miles of flat to undulating terrain, with elevations ranging from 150 to 350 feet. The eastern part is drained by the Navidad River, and the central and western parts are drained by the Lavaca River. In the southeast section the soils are light-colored and loamy with very deep reddish or mottled subsoils. The remainder of the county has deep, alkaline, clayey soils over a chalk underlayer with a high shrink-swell potential. The vegetation in the northwest is typical of the Blackland Prairies region, with tall grasses, mesquite, and oak predominating; pecan and elm trees are found along streams. The southeast is in the Post Oak Savannah vegetation area, characterized by tall grasses and post and blackjack oaks. Between 21 and 30 percent of the land is considered prime farmland. Natural resources include oil and natural gas. Among the animals commonly found in the county are white-tail deer, bobcats, coyotes, opossums, squirrels, foxes, armadillos, skunks, bats, cottontail rabbits, raccoons, and numerous reptile, fish, and bird species. The climate is subtropical-humid, with warm summers and mild winters. The average rainfall is thirty-seven inches. The average annual temperature is 70° F; temperatures in January range from an average low of 41° to an average high of 64° and in July from 73° to 96°. The growing season averages 278 days a year, with the last freeze in early March and the first freeze in early December.
The area of Lavaca County has long been the site of human habitation. Numerous artifacts from the Paleo-Indian (10,000-6,000 B.C.) and Archaic (6,000-200 B.C.) periods have been found in the area, which has been more or less continuously occupied for more than 10,000 years. During historic times the region was inhabited by various Coahuiltecan tribes, and Karankawas and Tonkawas were frequent visitors. In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries the Lipan Apaches and Comanches occasionally made forays into the region. Most of these peoples eventually succumbed to European diseases, were killed by other Indian tribes, intermarried, or migrated elsewhere; by 1850 virtually no trace of them remained.
Some sources suggest that the earliest Europeans to set foot in the future Lavaca County may have been survivors of Pánfilo Narváez'sqv expedition of 1528, most notably Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca.qv The earliest documented exploration of the region, however, was led by the Frenchman René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle,qv who in 1685 landed on the coast and reportedly named the Lavaca River Les Veches ("the cattle") because of the number of buffaloqv he saw grazing on its banks. The name was retained by the Spanish, who translated it La Baca. Later Spanish explorers may have crossed the county, but there is no record of other Europeans in the area until 1820.
Lands in the future county were included in the empresarioqv grants of both Stephen F. Austin and Green DeWitt,qqv with the Lavaca River marking the boundary of both. The first settlers were probably refugees from an Indian attack on the Mexican settlement of La Bahíaqv in 1826. Their settlement, located somewhere along the Lavaca River, was soon abandoned, but by 1831 DeWitt had assigned homesteads to twenty-one and Austin to twelve American families who came to establish small farms and stock ranches. Settlements sprang up at Zumwalts Mill, Rocky Creek, Hallettsville, Petersburg, Turner's Crossing, and William Millican'sqv gin, which became a center of revolutionary activity in 1835. Following the defeat of the garrison at the Alamoqv in 1836, both the Texas army under the command of Sam Houstonqv and the Mexican army passed through the county from west to east.
Indian raids, particularly by the Comanches and Tonkawas, were common in the late 1830s, but several defeats forced the Indians to withdraw to the west, and after 1841 the attacks ceased. In 1842 the Republic of Texasqv Congress established a judicial county from portions of Fayette, Colorado, Jackson, Victoria, and Gonzales counties and named it La Baca County. In 1846 the area was renamed Lavaca County, and it became a regularly constituted county with 140 taxpayers. Petersburg and Hallettsville vied to be county seat, and after two hotly contested elections Hallettsville won the contest in 1852; only by force of arms, however, were the men of Hallettsville able to liberate the county records from Petersburg.
The population grew rapidly during the late 1840s; by 1850 the number of inhabitants reached 1,571. The majority of the new settlers were from the Old South, and many brought slaves with them. Already in 1850 there were 379 bondsmen in the county, and the number grew steadily over the next decade. Despite the presence of a growing labor force, ranching remained the dominant occupation during the antebellum period. In 1846 tax rolls listed 3,581 cattle in the county; two stockmen had more than 200, seven had herds ranging from 100 to 150, and fifteen had 50 to 100. By 1851 the total number of cattle had risen to 13,505, and seventeen ranchers were listed with more than 200 head. Despite the emphasis on cattle ranching, however, by the late 1850s a small plantation economy, based primarily on cotton, also began to develop. The number of acres under cultivation increased markedly between 1855 and 1860, and by 1860 the cotton harvest neared 6,000 bales annually. Because of the lack of navigable streams, most of the county's large cotton crop had to be hauled overland to Port Lavaca and from there to markets and mills elsewhere.
The population increased rapidly during the 1850s as large numbers of settlers, lured by the abundant land, moved in. By 1860 the county had 5,945 residents, a nearly fourfold increase over 1850. The number of slaves increased to 1,606 (or more than a quarter of the entire population) by the eve of the Civil War.qv As many as half of the white families owned one or more slaves, and one of the state's largest slaveholders, W. G. L. Foley,qv who owned 124 bondsmen, lived in Lavaca County.
On the eve of the war Lavaca County was in most ways typical of the counties of the region, decidedly Southern in character and outlook, with a rapidly developing plantation economy. Not surprisingly, given its large number of slaveholders, the citizenry overwhelmingly supported the Southern cause. Nearly 95 percent (592 of 628) of those who went to the polls voted for secession.qv Lavaca County men volunteered for the Confederate Army in large numbers, many of them serving in Whitfield's Legion, the Eighth Texas Cavalryqqv (Terry's Texas Rangers), and other volunteer units. Some of the early volunteers saw considerable action during the conflict, and a sizable number of them were killed or injured. Although no fighting took place in Lavaca County, for those who remained at home there were other problems: lack of markets for goods, shortages, and unstable Confederate currency. Nevertheless, the county remained fairly prosperous during the war years. Large cotton crops were raised and harvested by ever-growing numbers of slaves, brought to the county by masters fleeing the fighting farther east. At the height of this influx in 1864, the tax rolls recorded 2,713 slaves in the county, a nearly twofold increase over 1860. During the later war years, the La Bahía Road, which crossed the county, became one of the main supply routes, feeding into what became known as the "Cotton Road" because of the continuous stream of wagons loaded with cotton moving south to bypass the Union blockade of the Texas coast.
The end of the war brought great changes. For many Lavaca County whites, the abolition of slaveryqv meant economic disaster. Before the war slaves had constituted nearly half of all taxable property in the county, and their loss, coupled with a precipitous lapse in property values, caused a profound disruption for most planters. The black population of Lavaca County did even worse. Most African Americansqv left the farms owned by their former masters to seek better lives, but they generally found little improvement. Most ended up working as agricultural laborers or as sharecroppers, receiving one-third or one-half of the crop for their labors.
Lavaca County escaped much of the strife that many other Texas counties experienced during Reconstruction.qv Although a detachment of federal troops and a Freedmen's Bureauqv agent were stationed in Hallettsville, relations between local whites and the soldiers and governmental officials were generally peaceful, and most of the county's citizens occupied themselves with rebuilding their lives. Isolated acts of violence and intimidation directed at blacks did occur, however, and when the white elite regained control of the county's affairs in the 1870s they worked quickly to disfranchise the black population. In the years immediately after the Civil War cotton production declined and cattle ranching again took center stage. The county's large expanses of open range and inexpensive land attracted cattlemen from more populated areas of the state; by 1870 the county was maintaining 56,309 cattle. Large trail drives to the railroads in Kansas began just after the war and continued until the mid-1880s, making some ranchers considerable fortunes. By 1870 sheep ranchingqv had also become an important industry, and during the 1880s the number of sheep exceeded 25,000.
Despite the increased attention given to stock-raising, the decade from 1870 to 1880 also saw a resurgence of cotton culture.qv The introduction of barbed wire,qv which enabled farmers to fence their fields inexpensively and protect them from free-ranging herds of cattle and sheep, was one reason for the growth of cotton production. But even more important was the changing demographic face of the county. After 1870 increasing numbers of Central European immigrants began to settle in the county, displacing many of the original American planters. Over the course of the next two decades many of the county's large land grants were divided into smaller, self-sustaining units; between 1870 and 1880 the number of farms grew from 905 to 1,925, and by 1890 the figure had risen to 3,062. The new immigrants worked without hired labor, relying on the aid of their families, which made production of cotton-and farming in general- much more profitable than it had been previously. As a result, cotton production increased steadily, from 3,528 bales in 1870 to 9,976 bales in 1880; by 1890 the number had risen to 26,842 bales, and in 1900, 38,349 bales came from the gins. During these years production of many other crops increased similarly, including corn, sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes, honey, sugarcane, and molasses.
Fueled by the influx of new immigrants, the population also rose markedly during the second half of the nineteenth century. It was 9,158 in 1870, 13,641 in 1880, 21,887 in 1890, and 28,121 in 1900. The majority of the new settlers were Germans and Czechsqqv (in this case, Czech-speaking Bohemians). The 1890 census listed 4,402 foreign-born residents, with the largest contingents from Germany (1,884) and Austria (1,748). The German, Moravian, and Czech immigrants founded numerous new ethnic farm communities, including Glecker, Breslau, Witting, Moravia, and Vienna. As a result the once decidedly Anglo-American county took on something of a Central European character. By the turn of the century a wide range of German and Czech newspapers were being published, among them Obzor, Treue Zeuge, Novy Domov, Prozor, Vestnik, and Buditel, and many of the county's towns had Czech social organizations, such the National Sokol Society and the Slavonic Benevolent Order.
The arrival of the first railroad, a branch of the San Antonio and Aransas Pass that passed through Hallettsville in 1887, helped to accelerate the growth of the county by providing better access to outside markets and giving rise to a number of new towns, including Shiner and Yoakum. The steady growth in new residents continued until around 1900. For the next three decades, however, the population stagnated; it was 26,418 in 1910, 28,964 in 1920, and 27,550 in 1930. The period after 1900 saw a marked increase in the dairy industry and swine raising;qqv after 1910 poultry productionqv also became a leading industry, and by the early 1930s Lavaca County ranked among the top Texas counties in poultry and egg production. After 1900 attempts were made to introduce tobacco farming. A stock company was organized in Hallettsville in 1904 that maintained a thirty- four-acre farm. But the quality of the tobacco raised was poor, and the project was abandoned after a few years. More successful was the introduction of truck farming, which proved to be well-suited to the area's sandy soil. After 1910 cucumbers, Irish potatoes, onions, garlic, beans, and sweet potatoes were grown in commercial quantities. But the most successful crop turned out to be tomatoes, which thrived in the warm, humid climate. In 1932, 431 railroad carloads, averaging 18,000 pounds each, went to markets in the North. Cotton continued to occupy a central place in the economy. As late as 1930 more than half of county's cropland (97,022 of 178,742 acres) was devoted to cotton. But as a result of the combined effects of the boll weevilqv and soil depletion, production of cotton declined, from 40,171 bales in 1906 to 34,186 in 1916 and 27,789 in 1926.
The falling cotton harvests brought hardship for many farmers in Lavaca County, particularly the growing legion of tenant farmers and sharecroppers. By 1920 nearly half of the farmers in the county (1,958 of 4,149) were working someone else's land. During the Great Depressionqv of the 1930s many of these tenants were hit hard. But in contrast to the tenant farmers of many other counties in the state, the majority of them were able to stay afloat by switching to truck farming or livestock raising. Between 1930 and 1940 the number of tenant farmers in the county actually increased (from 2,075 to 2,179), even while the population as a whole was declining. The trend toward diversification continued after World War II,qv enabling many smaller farmers to survive. Although some farms were consolidated in the 1950s, as late as 1964 the county still had 2,685 farms and therefore ranked third among Texas counties in this category. During the 1970s and 1980s, however, the pace of consolidation quickened as greater emphasis was placed on livestock raising; by the 1980s truck farming had been largely abandoned and little cotton was being grown. Nevertheless, in the early 1990s Lavaca County remained among the leading Texas counties in beef cattle, poultry, and hog production. Leading crops included hay, milo, and corn. Nonfarm revenues toward the end of the twentieth century came largely from light manufacturing, leather goods, and the Spoeztl Breweryqv in Shiner. Oil and gas, discovered in 1941, also contributed to the economy. In 1990 oil production was 736,258 barrels; total production from 1941 to 1990 exceeded 21,000,000 barrels.
The population was 25,485 in 1940, 22,159 in 1950, 20,174 in 1960, and 17,903 in 1970. The number of residents rose slightly in the late 1970s, to 19,004 in 1980, but declined afterward, to 18,690 in 1990. Most of the population (88.5 percent) in 1990 was white; the largest ancestry groups were German, Czech, and English. A continuous exodus of blacks to the cities had reduced the African- American population to 1,342, or 7.2 percent of the population. Hispanics (1,596), many of whom moved to the area in the late twentieth century, made up 8.5 percent of the population. The largest towns in 1990 were Hallettsville (2,718), Yoakum (3,457 in Lavaca County, partly in DeWitt County), Shiner (2,074), and Moulton (923). The attractions in Lavaca County include hunting, fishing, spring wildflower trails, the June Tom-Tom celebration in Yoakum, the Shiner Mayfest, the annual rodeo, and the Spoeztl Brewery in Shiner. In the early 1990s the county had about forty churches, with a combined membership of more than 15,000. The largest communions were Catholic and Baptist. The first schools in the county were private academies founded in the Republic of Texas, many of them associated with early churches. Father Edward Clark, who established St. Mary's Church in 1841, also established the first school; a log cabin served for both. Other early private schools were located in Petersburg and Hallettsville. By 1858 twenty-three teachers were listed in the county, though little is known about many of the early schools. The first public school was established at Hallettsville just after the Civil War, and by the turn of the century there were more than 100 public schools in operation. In the early 1990s Lavaca County had six school districts, with six elementary, one middle, and three high schools; in addition there were three private elementary and two private high schools. Politically, Lavaca County has followed statewide voting trends. Democrats dominated the county for more than a hundred years, and Democratic presidential candidates won nearly every election from the time of the Civil War until the early 1960s. Subsequently, however, Republican presidential candidates won every election from 1980 to 1992, with the margins of victory growing steadily larger. Republican candidates in statewide races also did increasingly well, sometimes outpolling their Democratic opponents by nearly twofold.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Paul Carl Boethel, "Early History of Settlers in Lavaca County," Frontier Times, January 1935. Paul C. Boethel, The History of Lavaca County (San Antonio: Naylor, 1936; rev. ed., Austin: Von Boeckmann-Jones, 1959). Paul C. Boethel, On the Headwaters of the Lavaca and the Navidad (Austin: Von Boeckmann- Jones, 1967). Paul C. Boethel, Sand in Your Craw (Austin: Von Boeckmann-Jones, 1959).
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