Cheapside is a

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

Gonzales County, Texas Gonzales County is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Texas, adjacent to Greater Austin-Greater San Antonio, San Antonio. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 19,653. The county is named for i ...

, United States. It is located south of

Gonzales Gonzales may refer to: Places * Gonzales, California, U.S. * Gonzales, Louisiana, U.S. * Gonzales, Texas, U.S. * Gonzales County, Texas Other uses * Battle of Gonzales, 1835 * Gonzales (horse) (1977 – after 1996), an American-bred Thoroughbr ...

. Once a thriving community and commercial center for cotton, only a church and the crumbling remnants of the former settlement remain.

History

The first settler was Thomas Baker, who built a log cabin in the area in 1857. The settlement was named after Cheapside Street in London, England, perhaps via

Cheapside, Virginia Cheapside is an unincorporated community in Northampton County, Virginia, United States. The nearby Custis Tombs were listed on the National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal govern ...

. A post office was established in 1882. Cheapside's economy was based on agriculture, particularly cotton, as well as poultry, livestock and grain. Cheapside had three grocery and general stores, a drugstore, a broom factory, a blacksmith shop, a hotel, a butcher shop, a barbershop, a confectionery, several doctors, a

Masonic Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

lodge and a Woodmen lodge, a daily stagecoach, and at least two saloons. To keep order there was a deputy sheriff. Cheapside also had a baseball team that played on weekends, with rodeo events between games. In 1889, a combined cotton and gin gristmill was built, and from about 1890 to 1913 a private school was located in Cheapside. The Cheapside Community Church was built in 1897, and moved to its present location in Cheapside in 1949. A small power plant was installed in 1925, and 1939 the county's electrical grid was extended to Cheapside. Cheapside's population peaked at about 500 during the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

of the 1930s.

Decline

Some of the factors which led to Cheapside's decline include a weakening in the price of cotton—a major commodity in the community—during the Great Depression. Soil in neighboring farmland had also lost its fertility due to over-cultivation. The gin closed during the 1940s, and most of the neighboring farmland reverted to open pasture. As well, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the war effort created work in the cities, and returning soldiers were less willing to return to small communities. With the rise in consumerism, "places like Cheapside...were casualties of an upwardly mobile society". Cheapside's school was consolidated with the Cuero Independent School District in 1949 due to low enrollment, and by 1960, the only remaining business in Cheapside was a small grocery store with a post office. It closed in 1989. The ''Victoria Advocate'' wrote in 2012 that in Cheapside there are "a few buildings teetering on collapse that become less and less visible through the trees and weeds, which have started to reclaim the abandoned town".

Notable person

* Keyes Fawcett Carson Jr. - While a cadet at

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

in 1936, Carson became an expert at

hitchhiking Hitchhiking (also known as thumbing, autostop or hitching) is a means of transportation that is gained by asking individuals, usually strangers, for a ride in their car or other vehicle. The ride is usually, but not always, free. Signaling ...

, traveling in 6,680 different vehicles with his pet turkey.

References

{{authority control Ghost towns in Texas Unincorporated communities in Gonzales County, Texas Unincorporated communities in Texas