Cheapside

Overview

A cotton town that faded slowly

Cheapside is on FM 2067, 21 miles southeast of Gonzales. Thomas Baker built the first cabin here in 1857, and families of English descent followed. A local doctor, E. R. Henry, born in Cheapside, Virginia, gave the place its name.

Cotton made the town. At its height it had a gin and gristmill, built in 1889, three stores, a drugstore, a hotel, a barbershop and at least two saloons, with a resident deputy sheriff to keep order. The school taught up to nine grades. The Handbook of Texas counts 150 people in 1904; a 2001 Houston Chronicle story cited by Wikipedia puts the peak at about 500 in the 1930s.

The Depression ended cotton here. The gin closed in the 1940s and the fields went to pasture. The school was merged into Cuero in 1949, and Joe Watson's grocery, with the post office in one corner, held on until February 1989. In 1990 the community church still met on Sundays and the old schoolhouse served as a community center.

Timeline

Cotton to pasture

1. 1857Thomas Baker, from the Natchez District of Mississippi, builds a log cabin in the area. Families of English descent follow.
2. 1874The Cumberland Presbyterian Church is organized at nearby Bellevue. It later moves to Cheapside.
3. Jun 5, 1882The Cheapside post office opens, at first just across the line in DeWitt County. It moves a mile west into Gonzales County in 1890 or 1891.
4. 1889E. F. Elder builds a combined cotton gin and gristmill.
5. 1893The Cheapside Baptist Church is organized.
6. HeydayAt its busiest the town has three stores, a drugstore, a hotel, at least two saloons, a broom factory and Masonic and Woodmen halls, with a resident deputy sheriff.
7. 1904Cheapside has 150 people.
8. 1925A Delco plant lights the two stores and four homes until rural electrification in 1939.
9. 1940sCotton no longer pays. The gin closes and the farms go back to pasture.
10. 1949With eight students left, the school is consolidated with Cuero.
11. Feb 1989Joe Watson's store, the last business, closes and the post office with it.
12. 1990The interdenominational community church still holds Sunday services, and the old schoolhouse is a community center.

Site map

Where the town stood

The Handbook of Texas lists the church and the schoolhouse in 1990. A 2025 KFYO article mentions a church building, a former schoolhouse used as a community building and the faint layout of streets, though it also says owners tore down what remained. Bellevue Cemetery, two miles south, has served the area since 1876.

• Community church
• Old schoolhouse
• Street layout
• Bellevue Cemetery (2 mi south)

Historic maps

Cheapside on USGS maps, 1953–1985

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

19531:250,00019601:24,00019851:100,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Gonzales is the closest city, half an hour south on US 183 and east on FM 2067. From San Antonio, take I-10 east to exit 632 at Luling and US 183 south. Paved all the way.

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

Photos

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Nearby

Other sites near Cheapside

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Texas index.

• Concrete7.2 mi SE · DeWitt
• Monthalia18.1 mi NW · Gonzales
• Oak Forest18.8 mi NW · Gonzales
• Leesville22.4 mi NW · Gonzales
• Golly24.7 mi S · DeWitt
• Albuquerque26.9 mi W · Gonzales
• Petersburg30.6 mi E · Lavaca
• Praha33.7 mi NE · Fayette

Sources

Sources and credits

1. Handbook of Texas Online, "Cheapside, TX" (W. Lamar Fly, rev. 1994), accessed October 19, 2026: settlement, name, post office, businesses, school, churches, cemetery, population, 1989 closure, 1990 status.
2. KFYO, "This Texas Town Vanished Overnight, Here's Why" (October 31, 2025): church, schoolhouse, street layout, private land.
3. Wikipedia, "Cheapside, Texas", retrieved October 2026: a peak of about 500 people in the 1930s, citing a 2001 Houston Chronicle story.
4. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits

• Cheapside on the 1960 USGS sheet, with its church and a cluster of buildings on FM 2067: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain
• Area base map, topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Seguin 1953, 1:250,000; Cheapside 1960, 1:24,000; Cuero 1985, 1:100,000.