Thought some of you might like to know that court house in Oakville is still standing. My husband and I drove by it last week and were talking about it. It is on the west side of Highway 37 from San Antonio to Corpus Christi. Jackie in Texas Richard Shannon wrote: > > Found the following - Richard > > WEST, GEORGE WASHINGTON (1851-1926). George West, cattleman and trail > driver, eldest of three sons of Washington and Mary B. (Willauer) West, > was born at Shannonville, Tennessee, on March 10, 1851. In 1854 > Washington West moved his family to Lavaca County, Texas, and their home > became an important stagecoach stop, which developed into the community > of Sweet Home. George was one of the first to drive longhorn cattle to > the Kansas railheads in 1867-68, and he continued driving until the > trails closed.In 1870 he contracted with the government to deliver > 14,000 longhorns to the Rosebud Indian Reservation in Montana. Although > he was the youngest man with the herd, he was the trail boss, and this > drive, from Lavaca County, Texas, to the destination, just 100 miles > south of the Canadian border, probably qualifies as the longest trail > drive on record. George had two brothers, Ike and Sol, who were also > trail drivers in the period 1870-90. George West married Katherine > "Kittie" Elizabeth Searcy, a descendant of the early American colonist > John Searcy on June 18, 1874. They had no children. During the 1870s > West made many drives to Kansas, Nebraska, Montana, Wyoming, and the > Dakotas. In 1880 he and his wife moved to Live Oak County and purchased > a 140,000-acre ranch and 26,000 cattle. This ranch included the site of > the present town of George West, which he founded in 1913, and extended > from the Nueces River on the north and east to McMullen County on the > west. He had 80,000 cattle in 1882, when he lost so many in the drought > that he had to sell off half of his ranch. J. Frank Dobie, another Live > Oak County son, records that cowboys employed by West were instructed to > chop off the left horn of every dead steer and bring it to a pile at the > ranch headquarters. After the height of the pile exceeded that of the > gatepost and was estimated at between 3,000 and 20,000 dead animals, > they quit. About the turn of the century West sold 60,000 acres to > Charles Simmons, of St. Louis, Missouri, who subdivided it, held a > lottery for lots, and established the town of Simmons, Texas, in 1907. > About 1910 West also turned his efforts toward colonization and town > development by donating $100,000 and a free right-of-way through his > ranch to the San Antonio, Uvalde and Gulf > Railroad (called the "Sausage Line"), and the railroad became a reality > in 1912. He also established the town named in his honor in the > succeeding years and built a $75,000 courthouse in order to remove the > county seat from Oakville, a $50,000 school, highways, bridges, public > utilities, and a hotel across from the railroad depot. He moved to a > permanent residence in San Antonio in 1904 and attended the Baptist > Church there. He died in San Antonio on February 16, 1926. Evidently > West had married a second time. His widow was listed as Mrs. Robbie > Bedell West, and they had two daughters. > > BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Marvin Hunter, Trail Drivers of Texas (2 vols., San > Antonio: Jackson Printing, 1920, 1923; 4th ed., Austin: University of > Texas Press, 1985). > > August Santleben, A Texas Pioneer (New York and Washington: Neale, > 1910). Ervin L. Sparkman, > > The People's History of Live Oak County (Mesquite, Texas, 1981). > Vertical Files, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at > Austin, George West. > > - Kurt House > > > Subject: [WEST-L] Re:the town of George West, Texas > > Date: Tue, 19 Jan 1999 17:16:15 EST > > From: RCulbe6428@aol.com > > To: WEST-L@rootsweb.com > > > > The town of George West, Texas is named after George West. What is his West > > ancestry? The town of George West is about 3O miles west of Beeville and is > > north of Corpus Christi. > > > > ______________________________ > > > > ==== WEST Mailing List ==== > Discover more about Rootsweb and the wonderful contribution they are making to the world of genealogy research go to > http://www.rootsweb.com