Cheapside, Texas

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Cheapside, Texas
Ghost town
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Cheapside
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Cheapside
Coordinates: 29°16′42″N97°24′11″W / 29.27833°N 97.40306°W / 29.27833; -97.40306 Coordinates: 29°16′42″N97°24′11″W / 29.27833°N 97.40306°W / 29.27833; -97.40306
Country United States
State Texas
County Gonzales
Elevation 299 ft (91 m)
Time zone Central (CST) (UTC-6)
 • Summer (DST) CDT (UTC-5)
GNIS feature ID 1354334 [1]

Cheapside is a ghost town in Gonzales County, Texas. It is located 21 mi (34 km) south of Gonzales. [1]

Ghost town city depopulated of inhabitants and that stays practically intact

A ghost town is an abandoned village, town, or city, usually one that contains substantial visible remains. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, prolonged droughts, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, pollution, or nuclear disasters. The term can sometimes refer to cities, towns, and neighbourhoods that are still populated, but significantly less so than in past years; for example, those affected by high levels of unemployment and dereliction.

Gonzales County, Texas County in the United States

Gonzales County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, its population was 19,807. The county is named for its county seat, the city of Gonzales. The county was created in 1836 and organized the following year.

Gonzales, Texas City in Texas, United States

Gonzales is a city in Gonzales County, Texas, United States. The population was 7,237 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat.

Contents

Once a thriving community and commercial center for cotton, only a church and the crumbling remnants of the former settlement remain.

History

The first settler was Thomas Baker, who built a log cabin in the area in 1857. [2]

The settlement was named after Cheapside Street in London, England, [3] [4] perhaps via Cheapside, Virginia. [2]

Cheapside street in the City of London

Cheapside is a street in the City of London, the historic and modern financial centre of London, which forms part of the A40 London to Fishguard road. It links St. Martin's Le Grand with Poultry. Near its eastern end at Bank junction, where it becomes Poultry, is Mansion House, the Bank of England, and Bank station. To the west is St. Paul's Cathedral, St. Paul's tube station and square.

Cheapside is an unincorporated community in Northampton County, Virginia, United States.

A post office was established in 1882. [2]

Cheapside's economy was based on agriculture, particularly cotton, as well as poultry, livestock and grain. Cheapside had three grocery and general stores, a drugstore, a broom factory, a blacksmith shop, a hotel, a butcher shop, a barbershop, a confectionery, several doctors, a Masonic lodge and a Woodmen lodge, a daily stagecoach, and at least two saloons. To keep order there was a deputy sheriff. [2] [4] Cheapside also had a baseball team that played on weekends, with rodeo events between games. [4]

Freemasonry group of fraternal organizations

Freemasonry or Masonry consists of fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local fraternities of stonemasons, which from the end of the fourteenth century regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities and clients. The degrees of Freemasonry retain the three grades of medieval craft guilds, those of Apprentice, Journeyman or fellow, and Master Mason. The candidate of these three degrees is progressively taught the meanings of the symbols of Freemasonry, and entrusted with grips, signs and words to signify to other members that he has been so initiated. The initiations are part allegorical morality play and part lecture. The three degrees are offered by Craft Freemasonry. Members of these organisations are known as Freemasons or Masons. There are additional degrees, which vary with locality and jurisdiction, and are usually administered by their own bodies.

WoodmenLife

WoodmenLife is a not-for-profit fraternal benefit society founded in 1890, based in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, that operates a large privately held insurance company for its members.

In 1889, a combined cotton and gin gristmill was built, and from about 1890 to 1913 a private school was located in Cheapside. [2]

The Cheapside Community Church was built in 1897, and moved to its present location in Cheapside in 1949. [4]

A small power plant was installed in 1925, and 1939 the county's electrical grid was extended to Cheapside. [2]

Cheapside's population peaked at about 500 during the Great Depression of the 1930s. [4]

Decline

Some of the factors which led to Cheapside's decline include a weakening in the price of cotton—a major commodity in the community—during the Great Depression. [2] Soil in neighboring farmland had also lost its fertility due to over-cultivation. [4] The gin closed during the 1940s, and most of the neighboring farmland reverted to open pasture. [2]

As well, during World War II, the war effort created work in the cities, and returning soldiers were less willing to return to small communities. With the rise in consumerism, "places like Cheapside...were casualties of an upwardly mobile society". [4]

Cheapside's school was consolidated with the Cuero Independent School District in 1949 due to low enrollment, and by 1960, the only remaining business in Cheapside was a small grocery store with a post office. It closed in 1989. [2]

The Victoria Advocate wrote in 2012 that in Cheapside there are "a few buildings teetering on collapse that become less and less visible through the trees and weeds, which have started to reclaim the abandoned town". [5]

Notable people

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References

  1. 1 2 U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Cheapside
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Fly, W. Lamar (June 12, 2010). "Cheapside, Tx". Texas State Historical Association.
  3. ↑ Moyer, Armond; Moyer, Winifred (1958). The origins of unusual place-names. Keystone Pub. Associates. p. 21.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Racine, Marty (July 22, 2001). "Last Days of Cheapside: A Few Members of Town's Former Populace Keep It Alive". Houston Chronicle.
  5. ↑ "Ghost Town Between Cuero and Gonzales". Victoria Advocate. June 21, 2012.
  6. ↑ "Keyes Fawcett Carson". Victoria Advocate. November 28, 2007.
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