DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Cologne Community in Goliad County. Now settle in, because this one starts with danger and ends with something genuinely remarkable. After the Civil War, the road was not safe — not for everyone.
Freedmen faced what the marker calls it plain and true: general lawlessness and violence, committed particularly against African Americans, all through the post-Civil War Reconstruction era. That's the world two men stepped into. Joseph Smith and George Washington — freedmen both — had opened a freight and passenger business in Victoria after the Civil War.
And here's the thing: it worked. They lived in relative prosperity, alongside other African American families, building something real in a world that kept trying to take it back. But Reconstruction ended.
Texas Democrats regained control of local and state government. And the prosperity and security that emancipated slaves had gained — threatened, just like that. Smith and Washington could read the wind.
So in 1877, they did something bold. They purchased more than five hundred acres on Perdido Creek, sitting between Victoria and Goliad. Then they didn't just settle it — they shared it.
They sold portions of that land to other African Americans. Others purchased adjacent property. And what grew up there was a community, deliberate and determined: a cemetery, churches, a one-room school.
A post office opened in 1898. They called it The Colony first. Simple.
Honest. Later it went by Perdido, then Centerville, then Ira Station. But eventually it landed on Cologne — and the marker floats a wry explanation for that name.
It may have derived, they say, from the wishful thinking of residents who wanted to distract from the scent of a local rendering plant. Sometimes you name a place for what you wish it smelled like. The economy started in agriculture, as you might expect.
But 1889 brought the Gulf, Western Texas and Pacific Railroad through the area, and shipping became a major commercial activity. And then — here's the detail that makes you stop — sometime in the 1890s, the community built an integrated depot. The marker calls it unusual for the time.
That might be the understatement carved into every county in Texas. A community founded on the idea of safety, of refuge — building something that the wider world around it couldn't yet imagine. Two world wars came.
The Depression came. Urbanization came. And like so many rural communities, Cologne declined gradually under the weight of all three.
But it had been something — built intentionally, in 1877, by people who knew exactly what they were doing and exactly why they were doing it.
What the marker says
Former slaves established the community of Cologne in an effort to provide safety and refuge from the general lawlessness and violence committed -- particularly against African Americans -- during the post-Civil War Reconstruction era. Freedmen Joseph Smith and George Washington had opened a freight and passenger business in Victoria after the Civil War. Their business was a success and they were able to live in relative prosperity in Victoria, along with other African American families. As Reconstruction ended and Texas Democrats regained control of local and state government, the prosperity and security gained by emancipated slaves was threatened. In 1877, Washington and Smith purchased more than five hundred acres on Perdido Creek between Victoria and Goliad. They sold portions of this land to other African Americans, and still others purchased adjacent property. A cemetery, churches and a one-room school were soon built, and a post office opened in 1898. The community was first known simply as "The Colony" but was later known as Perdido, Centerville and Ira Station. The name "Cologne" may have derived from the wishful thinking of residents who wanted to distract from the scent of the local rendering plant. Initially, the community's economy was based largely on agriculture, but the arrival of the Gulf, Western Texas and Pacific Railroad in 1889 allowed shipping to become a major commercial activity. Unusual for the time was an integrated depot built in the 1890s. As with many rural communities, two world wars, the Depression and urbanization caused the gradual decline of Cologne. (2008)