Deanville

Duane's take

Here's how the marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it to you. Way out in Burleson County, there's a little place called Deanville, and if you know where to look, the story of how it came to be is still standing right there on a roadside marker. So settle in.

This one goes back a ways. The year was 1872, and a merchant by the name of James L. Dean, born in 1841, decided this stretch of land along an arm of the Chisholm Cattle Trail was exactly the right place to plant something permanent.

Now think about that for a second. An arm of the Chisholm Cattle Trail. That means cattle were movin' through, drovers were passin' by, and James L.

Dean looked at all that traffic and said, here. Right here. He founded the town, and it carried his name.

Five years later, in 1877, the post office was established, which is how you know a place has gotten serious about itself. A post office means people are sending letters, receiving news, putting down roots. Deanville was real.

Then came 1913, and the Houston and Texas Central Railroad extended its line right into town. A railroad changes everything. Suddenly you're connected to a whole wider world in ways the cattle trail never quite promised.

But maybe the most durable thing this town ever built wasn't a depot or a post office. It was community. In 1916, the Sons of Hermann Lodge, the O.D.H.S., organized right there in Deanville.

And that lodge took on something special: the annual Fourth of July Celebration. Year after year, they've kept that tradition going. James L.

Dean put this place on the map back in 1872. The people of Deanville have been keeping it there ever since.

What the marker says

Founded 1872 by merchant James L. Dean (born 1841) on an arm of Chisholm Cattle Trail. The post office was established 1877. Houston & Texas Central Railroad extended line here in 1913. Sons of Hermnan (O.D.H.S.) Lodge, organized in 1916, sponsors annual Fourth of July Celebration. (1972)