Rossville

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, you want to talk about a place that started with two brothers, a mail route, and a sharp eye for good land — pull up a chair. William F.M.

Ross and John C. Ross were born in north Scotland, and in 1867 they came to Texas. Two brothers, a long way from home, figurin' out what this big strange state had to offer.

What it offered them first was a contract — a U.S. Mail contract, to be precise. They rode that route, day after day, and somewhere out in what would become Atascosa County, they started noticin' things.

Fertile soil. Plentiful game. The kind of country that whispers to a man who knows what he's lookin' at.

So in 1873, they didn't just pass through anymore. They settled. And then — and here's where it gets good — they wrote home.

Or talked to the right people. However they did it, they persuaded other Scottish families to make the same leap. Out here, in southwest Texas, a community took root that would become the first Scottish settlement in that entire part of the state.

They called it Rossville. And Rossville was not a small thing. It built itself up proper — a one-room school, a cotton gin, a post office that got its official establishment in 1877, two grocery stores, a bakery, and yes, a saloon.

A full little world, carved out of Texas soil by people who had crossed an ocean and then kept on goin'. But here's where the story takes that particular Texas turn it so often takes. The railroad came through the region — and it did not come through Rossville.

It bypassed the town entirely. And when a railroad bypasses you in that era, well, the town feels it. Rossville declined.

Two brothers rode a mail route, saw something worth stayin' for, built a community from scratch, and filled it with the sound of Scottish families makin' a life in southwest Texas. The railroad had other plans. That's the whole of it — and somehow, that's enough.

What the marker says

First Scottish community in southwest Texas. Founded 1873 by brothers William F.M. Ross and John C. Ross. Born in north Scotland, they came to Texas in 1867. Here they were awarded a contract to carry U.S. Mail. On the route, they noticed fertile soil and plentiful game of this region. They soon settled here and persuaded other Scottish families to join them. Rossville came to have a one-room school, cotton gin, post office (established 1877), two grocery stores, a bakery and a saloon; but it declined after being by passed by the railroad. (1969)