Wied is an

unincorporated area 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 west central Lavaca County in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. It is located near U.S. Route 90 Alternate (US 90A) west of the county seat at

Hallettsville Hallettsville is a city in Lavaca County, Texas, United States. Its population was 2,731 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Lavaca County. Hallettsville also has a sizable German-Texan population as the towns founders were mainly German ...

. The first Anglo-American settlers arrived here in the 1830s, but by the late 1800s they were replaced by Germans and Czechs. The population declined after the 1940s. In 2018 the

Vysehrad Independent School District Vysehrad Independent School District is a public school district located in Lavaca County, Texas (USA). Vysehrad ISD has one school that serves students in grades Kindergarten though eight. In 2009, the school district was rated " recognized" b ...

operated an area school and a community center existed on US 90A.

Geography

Wied Hall is located on US 90A approximately midway between Hallettsville and Shiner. The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) places Wied at the intersection of FM 1891 and County Road 372, which is north of US 90A. The Vysehrad Elementary School is located east of Wied on County Road 182 to the north of US 90A.

History

The first Anglo-Americans to arrive in the area were John Smeathers (the son of

Old Three Hundred The "Old Three Hundred" were 297 grantees who purchased 307 parcels of land from Stephen Fuller Austin in Mexican Texas. Each grantee was head of a household, or, in some cases, a partnership of married men. Austin was an American approved in 18 ...

settler

William Smeathers William "Bill" Smeathers ( 1767 – August 13, 1837), also known as Smithers or Smothers, was a pioneer settler of Kentucky and later Texas. Not much is known about his early days. He is believed to have been born in either Pennsylvania, Virginia ...

) in 1832 and Francis Smith in 1835. These were followed by Moses Mitchell and Anthony Brown after the area became part of the

Republic of Texas The Republic of Texas ( es, República de Tejas) was a sovereign state in North America that existed from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846, that bordered Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande in 1840 (another breakaway republic from Mex ...

. These early settlers discovered the rolling prairie between Smothers and Ponton Creeks was ideal for raising horses and cattle and growing

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...

and

corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

. By the 1870s, German immigrants replaced the earlier settlers and broke up the ranches into farms. A small settlement that included a store, blacksmith shop, and a

cotton gin A cotton gin—meaning "cotton engine"—is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, enabling much greater productivity than manual cotton separation.. Reprinted by McGraw-Hill, New York and London, 1926 (); a ...

grew up on land belonging to the Wied brothers. A wave of Czech immigrants arrived in the area between the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s. The Wied post office was established in the store from 1889 to 1906. The population was 40 in the 1890s. F. F. Kuehn ran a private school which closed in 1895. In that year F. W. Wunderlich donated land for a public school. Czech

Catholics The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

built St. Ludmilla's Church in 1919. Cotton was the basis on the local economy. By the 1940s, Wied's population was 100 and there were three businesses. However, by the 1950s there were only about 40 persons living there and the store and cotton gin closed. In 2000 there were about 65 persons living in the area. File:Wied TX Community Center.jpg, Wied Hall is on US 90A west of Hallettsville. File:Wied Cotton Gin.jpg, Ruins of Wied Cotton Gin in December 2019

Education

The Vysehrad Elementary School is located to the east of Wied at 595 County Road 182. The school educates students from Kindergarten through 8th grade. It was established in 1887 on the Francis Smith League and is still at its original location. Total enrollment varies but currently stands at 119 students.

References

{{Lavaca County, Texas Lavaca County, Texas