Don-Tol is a small

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in southeastern

Wharton County Wharton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 41,570. Its county seat is Wharton. The county was named for brothers William Harris Wharton and John Austin Wharton. Wharton County c ...

, in the U.S. state of Texas. The community is located along FM 1301 southeast of Boling. There is a Don-Tol sign on FM 1301 at County Road 100. The name was used by Mexican workers to address William Toliver Taylor, the owner of a post- Civil War sugar cane plantation.

History

The Taylor family moved to Texas in 1846. After the American Civil War, brothers William Toliver Taylor and Solomon Tyre Taylor became partners with G. C. Duncan who owned of land in eastern

. The venture was a success and the two men bought Duncan's acreage. The Taylors expanded their property to , growing corn, cotton, sugar cane, and other crops. The brothers hired Mexican workers to farm their land and the laborers began calling Toliver "Don Tol" in the Spanish style. When the Taylors split the plantation, Tyre named his western half Parkdale while Toliver named his eastern portion Don Tol. The brothers' hog pasture was sold to the Texas Gulf Sulphur Company and became the town of Newgulf. In 1936 there was a factory in Don-Tol. Five years later, its school was absorbed by the

Boling Independent School District Boling Independent School District is a public school district based in the community of Boling, Texas (USA). Located in Wharton County, a small portion of the district extends into Matagorda County. The district operates one high school, Boli ...

. A descendant of Toliver, Glenn B. Taylor was killed during World War II when his plane went down in French Indochina. As recently as 1989 the

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...

ran north and south along FM 1301 while the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway ran east and west along the path of the present-day electric transmission lines. Both sets of railroad tracks were gone in 2014.

Geography

Don-Tol is on FM 1301 at the intersection of County Road 101, also known as Dontol Road, a distance of southeast of Boling, southeast of

Wharton Wharton may refer to: Academic institutions * Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania * Wharton County Junior College * Paul R. Wharton High School * Wharton Center for Performing Arts, at Michigan State University Places * Wharton, Ch ...

and north of Pledger, a community in Matagorda County. Caney Creek meanders through the area toward the south. There is a business located at County Road 101 and FM 1301. The Don-Tol sign is located to the south at the County Road 100 junction. To the north, there is an electric power sub-station where an overhead transmission line runs east and west.

Notes

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Wharton County, Texas Unincorporated communities in Texas