These articles by a variety of people first appeared in Fayette County: Past & Present.




Located on the eastern edge of the rich and fertile Ross Prairie lies one of the most beautiful little cities of South Texas, the city of Fayetteville. All around Fayetteville lie fertile prairie lands; one mile east of it, the timber lands of Cummins' Creek limit the prairie. The substantial farms, the beautiful gardens and the fruit bearing fields speak of the industry and wealth of the population and are a delight to the traveler. Fayetteville is situated about twelve miles east of La Grange on the Missouri-Kansas-Texas railroad. Occupying the slopes of hills, it gives a picturesque appearance. In the middle of the large public square stands the courthouse, which was erected there by the county to serve as the justice's courthouse. The Zapp building also still stands, a handsome brick building on the northwest side of the public square.

Fayetteville began when two original settlers from "Austin's Three Hundred" established their homesteads in the area about 1822. The land was originally granted by the Mexican government to Alex Thompson and George Cumberland. The two settlers were Captain James J. Ross, and John Crier. Later settlers gathered around the established places for mutual protection from Indian raids. And thus Fayetteville was started. There was a road in the area in 1833, the San Felipe to Bastrop route by way of Rutersville. Hence there is a strong possibility that there might have been a trading station close by. Certainly the locality had enough population to furnish Sam Houston with at least nine men during the Texas Revolution. And after the War for Independence ended, a stage and freight line was established through Fayetteville. So there developed a tavern or hotel. In January of 1838 Samuel Alexander, Justice of the Peace, designated the location as a voting precinct with the name of "Alexander." Fayetteville also once had the name of "Lick Skillet." This name was derived from the fact that latecomers to feasts were told to "lick the skillets," since the food was all gone.

In 1847 P. J. Shaver, who had purchased most of the land in the area, systematically surveyed and laid out the town, giving names to the streets which are still in use today. Mr. Shaver owned the first hotel, and donated lots for the Fayetteville Academy, the cemetery, and the Union Church. People in the town wanted to name the town "Shaverville" after their most noteworthy citizen. Rejecting the suggestion, he called it Fayetteville after his own hometown, Fayetteville, North Carolina.

In 1851 Dr. Smith stated that Fayetteville had two stores, one post office, a line of mails, a blacksmith shop, a church, an academy, a Sunday School, a Justice of the Peace, and a Constable. By 1859 the population had increased enough to form a Masonic lodge. During the Civil War Dr. Smith organized the Fayetteville men for active service. The group was made up of fifty-eight men, and Dr. Smith himself was Captain.

About 1870 there was a large influx of Czechs into the area. Their number was so large that the original Anglo and German settlers (who came late in the 1840's) were soon in the minority. The Czechs liked the farming land in the area, and soon had bought out all the best farms. In 1893 there was a bad fire in Fayetteville, burning out one side of the square completely. But rebuilt almost immediately by the sturdy surrounding population, Fayetteville today is Bohemian with a little German.

In 1902 there were two churches in Fayetteville: The Catholic Church (now called St. John's) and the Moravian Brethren Church. The Catholic Church congregation is made up mostly of Bohemian parishioners. Both churches hold and participate in worship services. They also have clubs and societies which the parishioners take part in.

Many years ago Fayetteville had two schools, the Chromcik School and the Germania School. The Chromcik School was founded by Father Chromcik and named after him. The Germania School was taught in the building of the Germania Verein, a large two-story frame building. In 1907 the two schools in Fayetteville were still the Chromcik School and the Germania School. Some years later the Chromcik School was called St. John's Catholic School. From the other developed Fayetteville Rural High School.

The Fayetteville Rural High School District contains eighty-six and four-tenths square miles and it is made up of the following districts: Osneta, Willow Springs, Slovan, Hackebeil, Oldenburg, Roznov, and County Line. In 1951 this district enumerated three hundred and thirty-four white children and seventy colored children for a total of four hundred and four scholastics. Until very recently this district operated two schools, a twelve grade white system, and an eight grade elementary system for the colored children. The Fayetteville District provided for its high school colored scholastics to attend La Grange or Round Top-Carmine. The district operates bus routes, whereby it offers both white and colored scholastics transportation facilities.

There is one other school in the district; however, it does not come under the jurisdiction of Fayetteville Rural High School District. This school is known as St. John's, and it is a twelve grade parochial school About fifty per cent of the white children enumerated within the Fayetteville District attend St. John's School.

The business of Fayetteville is mostly merchandising. In 1902 there were four general merchandise stores, five groceries, two dry goods and notion stores, four full saloons, five beer saloons, two blacksmith and wheelwright shops, two furniture and hardware stores, one tin and hardware store, one saddler, two gins, two beef markets, two beer agencies, one livery stable, two hotels, two drug stores, five physicians, one lawyer, and one lumber yard. Most of these businesses are gone today.

So, Fayetteville remains about the way it was one hundred years ago. The town is becoming an ideal get-away spot for people who know Fayetteville's placidity and respect its old character.




Fayetteville, Texas, was once a growing, prosperous community. Included as some of its important businesses were the Johnson Hotel (one of the oldest buildings in Fayetteville), Sarrazin's Store, and several cotton gins. Fayetteville is located in Fayette County on Ross Prairie and is one of the old Czech settlements in Texas.

Back in the old days when it was a growing community, Fayetteville needed a hotel to house the newcomers. One of the hotels was built by Gus Gloeckner during the 1890's. In approximately 1918 Gerhard Von Minden bought the hotel from Gloeckner, who then moved to Rosenberg. The hotel was located at the intersection of Liveoak and Main Streets. Von Minden sold it to Monroe (Gussy) Johnson in about the year 1922. During this time the railroad was a major form of transportation, bringing in to Fayetteville many salesmen who stayed at the Johnson Hotel. Mr. Johnson met the salesmen at the depot with his horse and buggy (later with his Model T), showed them around town, and took them to his hotel where they stayed and showed their products in a display room for the buyers. They stayed in the hotel as long as they stayed in town. After they concluded their business they left on the Katy Railroad line, which came to Fayetteville four to six times a day. Johnson met all passenger trains at the depot. Mr. Johnson was the final owner of the hotel, closing down probably because of lack of business. The hotel was left standing for fifty years until a house was built on the site of the once prominent hotel.

Along with a hotel, a town needed a general store to accommodate its citizens. One of the oldest stores was Sarrazin's General Store. The store first went into operation in the year 1874 where the Western Auto Store now stands. Ed L. Sarrazin rebuilt the store near Main Street in 1888, making it one of the oldest buildings standing in Fayetteville today. The store stands in front of a warehouse also owned by Ed Sarrazin. The building had no ceiling until the year 1925, because some of the merchandise was hung from the rafters for display. The store sold almost everything the people needed. The store was inherited by Ed Sarrazin from Ed L. Sarrazin in 1925. Ed Sarrazin carried on the business as his father had until 1967. During Ed Sarrazin's ownership of the store, products were sold a great deal cheaper than they are today. Flour sold at $1.90 for forty-eight pounds; coffee for ten cents a pound; and sugar was one dollar for twenty pounds. Animal hides were also bought and sold at the store. The business shut down in 1967, but the building still stands today, making it the second oldest building in Fayetteville.

Even though the hotel and Sarrazin's Store were important businesses, the cotton gins were a main part of living in the area of Fayetteville, especially during the early decades of 1900. Most people grew cotton because of the fertile soil, the good price for the crop, and the convenience of nearby cotton gins to bale the cotton. One of the important cotton gins of the time was the gin located at the intersection of Main and Church Streets. This gin was owned and operated by Konstantin Chovanec. Afterwards a gin in the same area was owned by Alois Polansky, who bought the land from Konstantin Chovanec on November 4, 1887. Before he owned the gin and a tin shop in Fayetteville, the Polanskys (Alois and his wife, Johanna) worked for a living in the fields, until Alois Polansky contracted tuberculosis. Alois, who was from Moravia and had learned the importance of certain herbs in medicine, prepared a remedy for his ailment, and according to legend returned to work seven months later. Alois also invented a cotton dusting machine to poison for boll weevils. He obtained a patent and built the machine, making several hundred dollars. Alois died in Fayetteville in 1944 without revealing his cure for tuberculosis. It was said that Alois cured many people.

During the time of Polansky's ownership the gin was powered by burning wood. Polansky sold the gin to Emil Chalupa on October 6, 1910. About the same time the gin was destroyed by a hurricane during harvest time. The farmers rebuilt the gin in time to bale the same harvest. Some of the workers at the gin were: Ed Patterson, John Michalsky, Pete Michalsky, Arnold Knipple, Ed Kubala, and Emil and Frank Chalupa. The gin was changed to operate on electricity and later to diesel power. Two men arrived at the gin about four a.m. to fire the boilers, so the operation was ready to begin by seven a.m. In the late years of operation the gin was open during the season until late at night. Dinnertime for the workers was announced by a whistle in the gin. During the day the gin yard was always filled with wagons and trailers. The gin discontinued operation in the mid-1960's, because people quit growing cotton. They had learned of other crops which brought better prices, such as corn and other grains.

Another of the popular gins of the time was the Mazel-Renner gin. In operation before 1890, the gin did good business until a fire (probably started by sparks from a passing train) started in the gin, destroying it. Frank Mazel, co-owner of the first gin, rebuilt a second gin. The gin was wood fire-powered during the complete time of operation. The second gin was operated by six to eight people. The children of Frank Mazel assisted at the gin. The price to gin a bale was about $1.50 and the ties were $0.85. About forty bales were ginned a day. The gin was sold to Joe Kovar about 1917. Soon afterward this gin also burned down. After this gin burned down the towns of Biegel and Clear Creek got the ginning business of Fayetteville.

Fayetteville, now a small community, consists of citizens of Czech and German descent. The people of Fayetteville have much history to look back on. Fayetteville is the perfect place to spend the weekend away from the big city.




"Let's go to the picture show!" was a familiar saying when Fayetteville had their very own Dawn Theater. The Dawn Theater had various locations and owners, but it always showed quality movies.

The Dawn Theater in Fayetteville, Texas, was opened in its first location in approximately 1915, by Joseph Baca, in what is today the Pastime Club near the old Sarrazin store. John and Charles Milchalsky helped with the work at the "picture show." In 1920 Joseph Baca died, but his wife continued to run the theater for a while. She then sold it to the Michalsky brothers, who did not keep the theater very long. They sold it to Ignac Mynar, son-in-law of Louis Polasek, in 1925.

The second location of the Dawn Theater was on land originally granted to Alexander Thompson by the Mexican government. Alexander Thompson sold the land to Philip Shaver, who sold it to Sylvester Munger in 1850. Sylvester Munger built the building into which the theater was moved. The property was sold approximately eight more times until 1926, when Louis Polasek bought it.

The buildings on the land Louis Polasek bought were a furniture store and another building beside it. The furniture store was remodeled into a grocery store and millinery shop and the other building was remodeled into the theater. At this time Ignac Mynar moved his theater into his father-in-law's building. A new picture screen, new projector, new seats and a self -playing piano were installed. According to Mrs. Sophia Mynar, the projector cost $1,000 and the self-playing piano cost $600. The piano was necessary because the movies that were shown were silent. Only the best movies were shown, such as those of Paramount, Fox, Warner, Universal and Metro-Goldwin-Meyer Studios. There were even some Czech movies brought from Schulenburg, and on special occasions, variety shows.

No matter what kind of show was going on, there was always a fairly good crowd of about twenty to twenty-five people. One actor who always brought a crowd was Roy Rogers and his western shows. Even though there were fairly large crowds and admission charges were twenty-five cents for adults and fifteen cents for children, the theater began to lose money. Another thing that helped close the theater was television, which was becoming popular at this time. In about 1936 Ignac Mynar sold the theater to his brother, Joe Mynar, and his brother-in-law, Elo Rohde. Ignac Mynar helped them operate it until 1940, when he died. Then Joe Mynar and Elo Rohde continued the operation for a few more years until they were forced to close. The building today is owned by Mrs. Rudolf Mynar.

Although the Dawn Theater belongs to the past, the older people in Fayetteville still recall the fun they had at the "picture show."




The Fayetteville depot was important to Fayetteville because of the cargo, the passengers, and the passing trains. The location of the depot was a block away from the theater, on land which was bought from Sylvester Munger. The building of the depot took place in 1875. The building, a fairly large one, included two waiting rooms, an office and a large warehouse.

The office had three telegraph systems in it. One was the railroads' own telegraph system, and the other two were Western

Union systems. The manager or agent of the depot during the war was R. J. Danchak, from 1940 to 1958. He delivered many telegrams to parents saying that their son had been killed in the war.

The train that came through Fayetteville carried the U. S. mail, but the depot did not have anything to do with it. A messenger carried the mail to the depot and waited for the train. In those days cargo was one of the main items on the train, whether it was out­ going cargo or incoming freight. Some of the main items that were shipped out of Fayetteville were bales of cotton and gravel. The cotton was on its way to La Grange to the compress, and the gravel was going to Houston, to be used in construction. Incoming freight was another kind of cargo the depot handled. At this time most all groceries and all gasoline came in by railroad. There was a delivery boy that delivered freight in town; but all out-of-town customers were sent a notice that their freight had been received. Since the railroad was the main source of transportation, there were six passenger trains going through Fayetteville. There were three passenger trains going toward Houston and there were three passengers trains going toward La Grange. The charge for a ride on the train in 1939 was $2.55 to Houston and $0.35 to La Grange. During the war they used these passenger trains to carry prisoners to prison camps away from the coast.

The trains of that time were pulled by steam engines. It was estimated that a steam engine could pull approximately fifty passenger and thirty gravel cars. It took five men to run these trains. Diesel engines did not come till much later. Naturally the fuel of these steam engines was coal and water. The trains that went through Fayetteville got their coal at Smithville and had enough to make it to Houston. But water they had to get fairly often, and one of their refilling places near Fayetteville was at the Cummins Creek crossing.

The depot only lasted until 1959, when it was closed down because the railroad company could not afford to keep it up. The smaller depots were closed, and only the larger ones were kept in operation.

Although the only things that remain are the old railroad tracks to the depot, the Fayetteville depot is remembered for its boost to the business of the town of Fayetteville.