Francitas is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Jackson County,

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 ...

, United States. According to the

Handbook of Texas The Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) is an American nonprofit educational and research organization dedicated to documenting the history of Texas. It was founded in Austin, Texas, United States, on March 2, 1897. In November 2008, the ...

, the community had an estimated population of 760 in 2000.

Geography

Francitas is located at (28.8597082, -96.3385798). It is situated along FM 616 in southeastern Jackson County, approximately 28 miles south of El Campo and 30 miles east of

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

History

A small colony of French families settled in the area during the late 1890s and soon thereafter, railroad employees named the community Francitas. The Valley Fruit Farm and Garden Company promoted the community by publicly selling lots in 1909. A year later, acreage purchased from local rancher Lafayette Ward was surveyed into additional lots for settlement. The Francitas post office was established in 1911, with C.O. Hardy serving as its first postmaster. It became a stop on the

St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway Chartered on June 6, 1903, the St. Louis, Brownsville & Mexico Railway (also known as the ''Brownie'') was a 200-mile (321 km) U.S. railroad that operated from Brownsville, Texas, to Gulf Coast Junction in Houston, Texas. It served numerous t ...

in 1914. The population peaked at around 300 in 1940, with a total of three businesses operating in the community. During the latter half of the twentieth century, Francitas experienced fluctuations in its population. From approximately 100 in the 1950s, Francitas was home to 200 residents in the early 1960ss. That number had declined to 30 by 1990 before increasing to 143 in 2000. Francitas has a post office, with the ZIP code 77961.USPS – Cities by ZIP Code
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Education

Public education in the community of Francitas is provided by the Industrial Independent School District.

References

External links

* * Unincorporated communities in Jackson County, Texas Unincorporated communities in Texas {{JacksonCountyTX-geo-stub