MASON County was originally part of the Bexar District. When Gillespie County was marked off in 1848, most of the future Mason County was included within its boundaries. Mason County was named for Fort Mason which was establishe by the United States to protect the settlers in the western regions of Texas. In 1858, Mason County was established by an act of the state legislature. The act required that a county seat be established within two miles of the fort. Voters chose the town of Mason to be its county seat on May 20, 1861.
ARTThe community was initially settled around 1856, when five German families set up
homesteads along Upper Willow Creek. Then later a few more German families moved on west from Gillespie County. The settlement is "eight miles east of Mason in Mason County, was first called Willow Creek. When a post office was established on March 29, 1886, the name was
changed to Plehweville for Otto Plehwe who had a general store and was the first postmaster. It was renamed Art on Dec. 23, 1920 because the Post Office Department desired a three letter name. A Mr. Dechart was postmaster at the time and is supposed to have named the village Art after the last three letters of his name.
In 1947 Art had one general store where the postoffice was housed and a filling station and a feed store. Most of the citizens in the community are ranchers. -Source: Margaret Bierschwale The Handbookof Texas Vol. I;1952.
FREDONIA Deerton, Texas on Deer Creek in San Saba County on the Mason County line, was settled by the family of
Chaney Couch, which arrived in the county in 1855 and later built a house at the site. Samuel Parker Hayes became postmaster in an office establised in his home on March 17, 1879. On June 8, 1880, the name was changed to Fredonia.- Source: Webb, Walter Prescott; The Handbookof Texas Vol. I;1952
"After the Civil War the number of settlers increased and a church and school building were erected in 1874. On March 17, 1879, a postoffice named Deerton was established, but on July 8, 1880the name was officially changed to Fredonia. The town reached its peak population in the 1890's, but in 1940's
remained a rural market with a popultion fewer than 200." Source: Margaret Bierschwale The Handbookof Texas Vol. I; 1952.
KATEMCY is an unincorporated community on Katemcy Creek in Mason County, Texas.
The community is located on Road 1222. The creek and the community were named after Penateka Comanche Chief Ketemoczy
(Katemcy) who gave John O. Meusebach the nickname El Sol Colorado (The Red Sun) because of his red hair.
"Settled about 1880, the village had a population of 100 in 1890 when J. M. Heatherley was postmaster, W. E. Cole had a grist mill and cotton gin, and E. R. Cowan ran a general store. The community then had three churches and a school."
Source: Margaret Bierschwale The Handbookof Texas Vol. I; 1952.
HILDA is an unincorporated farming and ranching community established about 1852 in Texas. It is located on Road 783
between Mason and Doss. The community was founded by German immigrants who came to Texas to settle the Fisherâ€"Miller Land Grant territory.
"Hilda was for many years called Beaver Creek because it was located on a creek by that name. A shorter name was wanted when the post office was established on September 16, 1901.
Emma Schulze, the first postmistress, named the town for Hilda Schulze. The first school built in 1863, was taught by Henry Bierschwale. The building made of cypress logs and stone withliving quarters at the back, was used for church services on Sunday."Source: Margaret Bierschwale The Handbookof Texas Vol. I; 1952.
PONTOTOC is an unincorporated community on Pontotoc Creek, in northeastern Mason County, Texas. The community is located at the junction of State Highway 71 and RM 501. M. Robert Kidd, proprietor of the first general store and originally from Pontotoc, Mississippi, is said to have given the community and the creek their names. In 1859, Benjamin J. Willis was one of the first settlers in this community that was historically a junction of roads leading to San Saba from Fort Mason and from Llano. A small number of other families arrived at the same time.The San Fernando Academy was founded in 1882 and Pontotoc's success seemed a certainty. That was until a typhoid fever epidemic decimated the population. A small boom in the form of a mica-mining operation came about in the 1920s which increased the population by 50% but even then - it only reached 300. A disastrous fire in August 1947 took out a good portion of the stores downtown. The town wisely left several of the fire-gutted stone buildings.- Source: The Handbookof Texas Online
LOYAL VALLEY is a community just east of Interstate Highway 87 near Cold Spring Creek in a valley circled by low hills in the southeastern corner of Mason County. One of the oldest communities in the county, it was settled around 1858 by German settlers from the Fredericksburg area, including Henry and Christian Keyser, John Kidd, and a Mr. Gertsdorff. John O. Meusebach moved to Loyal Valley from Fredericksburg in 1869. He laid out the town, operated a store and nursery there, and later served as postmaster and as justice of the peace. He is also said to have built a Roman-style bathhouse, which was still standing in 1976. Some sources say that Meusebach gave the town its name because of the mutual cooperation and loyalty between the local settlers. Other sources say Meusebach chose the name to proclaim the loyalty of the area to the Union during the Civil War.- Source: The Handbookof Texas Online
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