Nada

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it to you. Picture a stretch of Colorado County that was once part of Stephen F. Austin's colony, open land with a long memory, and into that memory step the German and Czech immigrants of the 1880s, ready to make something out of it.

Nada, they'd call it eventually. But that name was still a ways off. First came the settling.

John William Schoellman brought his family here from nearby Frelsburg in 1881, and he didn't waste any time. He built the area's first store. Kept it in the family, too, handing it over to his son, John Henry Schoellmann, to operate.

Now the families kept coming. Joseph Laby. Florian Frnka.

Gerhard Eggemeyer. Ernest Krenk. Joseph Schneider.

Diedrich Frels. Names that carried whole histories across an ocean and planted them right here in Colorado County. By 1883, a public school had opened, known as Red Bluff.

Then in 1889, the Schoellmann and Laby families donated land for a Catholic Church and Parochial School. That kind of generosity tends to anchor a community, and this one was no different. The Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was built in 1896, and it has served as a center of community activities from that day forward.

Meanwhile, in 1894, a United States post office was established, William Engbrock stepping in as postmaster, and the town was given its name: Nada. By 1904, this place could boast homes, schools, stores, a church, a cotton gin, and a dance hall. A cotton gin and a dance hall.

That right there tells you everything you need to know about the balance these folks were strikin'. Work hard, celebrate harder. Nada has stayed an agricultural community, and many descendants of those pioneer German and Czech settlers are still out there, still on that land.

Austin's colony, a Red Bluff schoolhouse, a church built in 1896, and a dance hall that knew how to earn its keep. Some places announce themselves. Nada just keeps going.

What the marker says

Located on land once included in Stephen F. Austin's colony, the community of Nada was first settled in the 1880s by German and Czech immigrants. John William Schoellman brought his family here from nearby Frelsburg in 1881. He built the area's first store, which was operated by his son, John Henry Schoellmann. Other early settlers included the families of Joseph Laby, Florian Frnka, Gerhard Eggemeyer, Ernest Krenk, Joseph Schneider, and Diedrich Frels. A public school, known as Red Bluff, opened in 1883. In 1889 the Schoellmann and Laby families donated land for a Catholic Church and Parochial School. The Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was built in 1896 and has served as a center of community activities since that time. A U.S. post office was established in 1894 with William Engbrock as postmaster and the town was named Nada. By 1904 the community boasted homes, schools, stores, a church, cotton gin, and dance hall. Nada has remained an agricultural community. Many descendants of pioneer German and Czech settlers continue to live in the area.