Fayette County is a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

located in the U.S. state of

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. As of the 2020 census, its population was 24,435. Its

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

is La Grange. The county was created in 1837 and organized the next year. Fayette County was settled by German and Czech emigrants in the mid 1830's. The county lies in the Texas German belt, a fragmented belt of German towns throughout central Texas.

History

Fayette County was established in 1837 from land given by Bastrop and

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

Counties. It is named for the Marquis de Lafayette, a French

nobleman Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally appointed by and ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. T ...

who became an

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

hero. An early resident of Brazoria County and then Fayette County, Joel Walter Robison fought in the

Texas Revolution The Texas Revolution (October 2, 1835 – April 21, 1836) was a rebellion of colonists from the United States and Tejanos (Hispanic Texans) against the Centralist Republic of Mexico, centralist government of Mexico in the Mexican state of ...

and served in the

Texas House of Representatives The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Texas Legislature. It consists of 150 members who are elected from single-member districts for two-year terms. There are no Term limits in the United States, term limits. The ...

. More than a dozen historic properties are listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Fayette County. Fayette County is the location of the real Chicken Ranch, which was the basis of the musical play and feature film '' The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas''.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which (1.0%) are covered by water.

Adjacent counties

* Lee County (north) * Washington County (northeast) * Austin County (east) * Colorado County (southeast) * Lavaca County (south) * Gonzales County (southwest) * Caldwell County (west) * Bastrop County (northwest) Fayette County Courthouse Atrium

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, 21,804 people, 8,722 households, and 6,044 families resided in the county. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . The 11,113 housing units averaged . The racial makeup of the county was 84.58% White, 7.01% African American, 0.36% Native American, 0.22% Asian, 6.72% from other races, and 1.11% from two or more races. About 12.78% of the population were

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race; 34.9% were of German, 16.4%

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

, 7.6% American, and 5.3% English ancestry according to Census 2000. Christianity is the number-one religion and Judaism is the second. Of the 8,722 households, 28.5% had children under 18 living with them, 58.0% were married couples living together, 7.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.7% were not families. About 28.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 16.4% had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 2.44 and the average family size was 2.97. In the county, the population was distributed as 23.2% under the age of 18, 7.0% from 18 to 24, 23.6% from 25 to 44, 24.2% from 45 to 64, and 22.0% who were 65 or older. The median age was 43 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.7 males. For every 100 females 18 and over, there were 91.0 males. The

median income The median income is the income amount that divides a population into two groups, half having an income above that amount, and half having an income below that amount. It may differ from the mean (or average) income. Both of these are ways of unde ...

for a household in the county was $34,526, and for a family was $43,156. Males had a median income of $29,008 versus $20,859 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the county was $18,888. About 8.10% of families and 11.40% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 12.70% of those under age 18 and 13.50% of those age 65 or over.

Transportation

Airport

The county owns Fayette Regional Air Center, in an unincorporated area west of LaGrange.

Major highways

Interstate 10 Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost transcontinental highway in the Interstate Highway System of the United States. It is the fourth-longest Interstate in the country at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. It was part of the origina ...

* U.S. Highway 77 * U.S. Highway 90 * U.S. Highway 290 * State Highway 71 * State Highway 95 * State Highway 159 * State Highway 237

Media

Fayette County is home to three newspapers and two radio stations.

Newspapers

''Fayette County Record''
* '' Schulenburg Sticker'' * ''Flatonia Argus''

Radio

* KVLG/KBUK * KTIMe

Communities

Cities

Carmine Carmine ()also called cochineal (when it is extracted from the Cochineal, cochineal insect), cochineal extract, crimson Lake pigment, lake, or carmine lake is a pigment of a bright-red color obtained from the aluminium coordination complex, compl ...

* Ellinger * Fayetteville * La Grange (county seat) * Schulenburg

Towns

* Flatonia * Round Top

Census-designated place

Plum A plum is a fruit of some species in Prunus subg. Prunus, ''Prunus'' subg. ''Prunus'.'' Dried plums are often called prunes, though in the United States they may be labeled as 'dried plums', especially during the 21st century. Plums are ...

Unincorporated communities

* Ammannsville *

Cistern A cistern (; , ; ) is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. To prevent leakage, the interior of the cistern is often lined with hydraulic plaster. Cisterns are disti ...

* Dubina * Engle * Freyburg * High Hill * Holman * Hostyn * Kirtley * Ledbetter * Muldoon * Mullins Prairie * Nechanitz * O'Quinn * Oldenburg *

Park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...

* Praha * Rabbs Prairie * Rek Hill * Roznov * Rutersville * Swiss Alp * Waldeck * Walhalla * Warda * Warrenton *

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...

* Willow Springs *

Winchester Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...

* Winedale

Ghost towns

* Biegel * Black Jack Springs * Bluff * Gay Hill * Haw Creek * Stella

Politics

At the presidential level, from 1912 through 1964, Fayette County, as was typical of the

Solid South The Solid South was the electoral voting bloc for the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party in the Southern United States between the end of the Reconstruction era in 1877 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In the aftermath of the Co ...

, voted predominantly for the Democratic candidate, even in

1928 Events January * January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly demonstrating that DNA is the genetic material. * January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris B ...

with

Al Smith Alfred Emanuel Smith (December 30, 1873 – October 4, 1944) was the 42nd governor of New York, serving from 1919 to 1920 and again from 1923 to 1928. He was the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party's presidential nominee in the 1 ...

the Democratic nominee, unlike most Texas counties. From

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

, the county has shifted to the Republican nominee.

Education

References

External links

Fayette County government's website
*
Historic materials from Fayette County
hosted by th
Portal to Texas History
{{authority control 1838 establishments in the Republic of Texas Populated places established in 1838 ZZ Top