Sodville Community

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Sodville Community, out in San Patricio County. Now settle in, because this is a story about a place that bloomed up out of raw brushland and then, just as quietly, faded back into the prairie. It starts with two parties who saw opportunity where most folks just saw thorns.

George H. Paul, a land developer all the way from Iowa, joined forces with the giant Coleman-Fulton Pasture Company in 1907 and 1908. Together they had 56,000 acres to sell, which is a lot of land by anybody's measure.

Before a single prospective buyer could even walk the property, Mexican migrant laborers had to go in and clear the brush, and that brush was so thick that buyers had to mark their paths just to find their way back out. Think about that. You're being sold a dream, and the first thing you do when you arrive is drop a trail of breadcrumbs so you don't get swallowed up by the chaparral.

When the real estate agency sat down to write promotional literature aimed at folks up in the Midwest, they needed a name, and the fertile soil apparently did the talking. Sodville. Good, honest, agricultural promise right there in a single word.

And the land sold. It sold at a steady pace. By 1908, enough families had settled in that a man named T.

F. Harwood donated land so the community could build itself a school. Children have a way of making a place feel permanent, and a schoolhouse makes it official.

By 1910, Mynier's store was open and serving the community. A Union church found its congregation meeting in that schoolhouse, in brush arbors, and in whatever other locations presented themselves, because when people want to gather, they find a way. Then Hall Industries of Beeville came in, bought Mynier's interest in the store, and built two cotton gins in the area.

Cotton gins mean cotton, and cotton means a community with economic backbone. But Hall Industries eventually sold its interest in Sodville to a man named W. A.

Dunn, and that is when a corner of a Texas town became something more than geography. Dunn's store and the corner on which it stood grew into genuine community institutions. There's something about a good corner store that becomes the center of gravity for everything around it.

The Sodville Baptist Church organized in 1914, and by 1916 the congregation had its own building to meet in. Then in 1919 and 1920, T. F.

Harwood, the same man who'd donated school land back in 1908, donated more, and the Sodville Independent School District was born. By the 1930s, Sodville had around fifty residents and three businesses, and the roads were paved. A brick schoolhouse went up in 1938.

Fifty people, a brick school, paved roads, a Baptist church, a corner store that everybody knew. That, friends, is a community. But here is where the story turns, and it turns the way it turned for so many places just like Sodville.

In the second half of the twentieth century, people left the farms and the rural areas and headed for the cities. It happened all across Texas, all across the country. Communities such as Sodville watched their populations thin out, year by year.

The school district consolidated with Sinton schools in 1947. Dunn's store closed in the mid-1950s. The Sodville Baptist Church disbanded in 1961.

And by the end of the twentieth century, what remained near this very site was Dunn's corner and a few homes. That corner that had once been a community institution, still standing, still holding its ground. Sometimes a corner is all a place leaves behind, and sometimes that's enough to remember it by.

What the marker says

George H. Paul, a land developer from Iowa, joined forces with the giant Coleman-Fulton Pasture Company in 1907 and 1908 to sell 56,000 acres of land for a development. Mexican migrant laborers cleared the area of brush, which was so thick that prospective buyers had to mark their paths. Sodville was probably named for its fertile soil when the real estate agency was creating promotional literature for prospective buyers in the midwest. Land sold at a steady pace, and in 1908 there were enough children in the area to prompt T. F. Harwood to donate land on which to build the Sodville school. By 1910 Mynier's store served the community. A Union church met in the schoolhouse, brush arbors and other locations. Hall Industries of Beeville bought Mynier's interest in the store and built two cotton gins in the area. The company later sold its interest in Sodville to W. A. Dunn, whose store and the corner on which it stood became community institutions. The Sodville Baptist Church organized in 1914 and the congregation met in its own building by 1916. In 1919-1920 T. F. Harwood donated more land to the school, and the Sodville Independent School District formed. By the 1930s Sodville had about 50 residents and three businesses; the roads were paved. A brick schoolhouse was erected in 1938. As people left farms and rural areas for cities in the second half of the 20th century, the population of communities such as Sodville declined. The school district was consolidated with Sinton schools in 1947; Dunn's store closed in the mid-1950s. The Sodville Baptist Church disbanded in 1961. Dunn's corner, near this site, and a few homes were all that remained of the Sodville community at the end of the 20th century. (2000)