La Salle 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 103 in 2000.

Geography

La Salle is located at (28.7916577, -96.6691449). It is situated along FM 616 in southwestern Jackson County, approximately 16 miles south of Edna and 22 miles east of Victoria.

History

In 1875, J.M. Bennett and brothers Sol and Ike West founded a cattle ranch at the site. The

Missouri Pacific Railroad The Missouri Pacific Railroad , commonly abbreviated as MoPac, was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River. MoPac was a Class I railroad growing from dozens of predecessors and mergers. In 1967, the railroad o ...

passed through the property in 1909. The three associates named the station Benwest, after the surnames of the owners. The name was changed to Bennview when the West brothers withdrew from the partnership in 1922. A town site was surveyed in 1924 and Bennett promoted a land sale that attracted a number of

Poles Pole or poles may refer to: People *Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland * Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name * Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist ...

and

Czechs The Czechs (, ; singular Czech, masculine: ''Čech'' , singular feminine: ''Češka'' ), or the Czech people (), are a West Slavs, West Slavic ethnic group and a nation native to the Czech Republic in Central Europe, who share a common Bohemia ...

to the community. A post office was established at Bennview in 1928 and remained operational until 1930. Seven years later, citizens changed the name from Bennview to La Salle in recognition of the

French colonization of Texas The French colonization of Texas started in 1685 when René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, Robert Cavelier de La Salle intended to found the colony at the mouth of the Mississippi River, but inaccurate maps and navigational errors caused ...

that existed in the area in the 17th century, and a new post office opened along with a school and general store. La Salle's population rose from an estimated 60 residents in 1941 to just over 100 by the early 1970s. Thereafter, the community experienced a period of decline. The population fell to 75 in the late 1980s and remained at that level until 2000, when the number of inhabitants rose to approximately 103. La Salle has a post office with the ZIP code 77969.USPS – Cities by ZIP Code
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Education

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

References

External links

* * {{authority control Unincorporated communities in Jackson County, Texas Unincorporated communities in Texas