Downsville, Texas

Downsville is an unincorporated community in McLennan County, located in the U.S. state of Texas. The community is located 8 miles to the southeast of Waco, and directly to the east of Robinson, Texas.[1][2]

Downsville, Texas
Unincorporated community
Downsville
Downsville
Coordinates: 31°27′04″N 97°04′03″W
CountryUnited States
StateTexas
CountyMcLennan
Time zoneUTC-6 (Central (CST))
 • Summer (DST)UTC-5 (CDT)
Area code(s)254

History

The town was named for William Woods Downs, a landowner in the 1850s. Downs used slaves to work the land, a number of which established the Mount Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church in the area in 1866. A post office was established in the 1880s, when the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway passed through the community, at this time the community was named Price. William P. Sparks served as the first postmaster. The town was renamed Downsville later that same year, in honor of William Downs and his son John Wesley Downs.[3]

Towards the end of the 19th Century, the town consisted of a general store, two grocery stores, three flour mills and a one teacher school. The population was 100. The school served seventy-three white students, with another local school named Mount Pleasant being recorded as serving 126 black students.

The post office was closed in 1907, with mail being sent to Waco. The population remained at 134 during the first half of the 20th Century, falling to only fifty by 1950, and thirty five by 1964. With the closure of the track between Waco and Rosebud in 1967, the community was deprived of a rail service.[4]

The population in 1990 was thirty five, growing to 150 by 2000.

Notes
  1. "Downsville Populated Place Profile / McLennan County, Texas Data". texas.hometownlocator.com. Retrieved 2020-11-20.
  2. "Downsville (McLennan County, TX) – Census". roadsidethoughts.com. Retrieved 2020-11-20.
  3. "TSHA | Downsville, TX". www.tshaonline.org. Retrieved 2020-11-20.
  4. "Interesting Facts | Robinson, TX – Official Website". www.robinsontexas.org. Retrieved 2020-11-20.


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