DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way down in Live Oak County, there's a place called Gussettville — and if you blink, you just might miss it. But once upon a time, friend, that little spot on the map had a whole lot going for it.
It all started back in the eighteen thirties, when Irish Catholics from the McMullen and McGloin colony put down roots and called the place home. Now, in those early days, folks didn't call it Gussettville. No sir.
They called it Fox Nation — on account of the Fox family. There's a name with some swagger to it. Fox Nation.
You can almost hear the wind carrying it. But nothing stays the same forever, and sometime in the eighteen fifties, the settlement took on a new identity. A man by the name of N.
Gussett ran the general store, and apparently that carried enough weight that the whole town got renamed in his honor. Gussettville. The general store owner won the naming rights.
There's a Texas story right there. Now the community kept on growing, and by eighteen seventy-four, something truly significant happened — the first Catholic church in all of Live Oak County went up right here. The land for that church, and part of the cemetery alongside it, was given by Thomas Shannon and his wife Anne.
A gift of ground that would outlast almost everything else the town had to offer. And Gussettville had plenty to offer, for a time. It sat on the stagecoach line running between San Antonio and Brownsville, which meant steady traffic, steady business, steady life.
The town prospered. Then came the railroad. And the railroad didn't come through Gussettville.
It went somewhere else — and it took the future right along with it. Traffic diverted. People followed the trains.
Gussettville faded, the way the marker says hundreds of early Texas towns did, quietly, almost without ceremony. Today, the church Thomas and Anne Shannon helped make possible is the chief remaining structure. The store is gone.
The stagecoaches are gone. But that church is still standing — a gift of land that turned out to be a gift of memory.
What the marker says
Founded by Irish catholics of McMullen and McGloin colony in 1830's. Called "Fox nation" for the Fox family, was renamed Gussettville in 1850's in honor of N. Gussett, owner of general store. First Catholic church in Live Oak County built here 1874. Land for church and part of the cemetery was given by Thomas Shannon and his wife Anne. A stagecoach stop on San Antonio-Brownsville line, town prospered until by-passed by railroad. Typical of hundreds of early towns that faded as train service diverted traffic. Church is chief remaining structure.