The Village of South Gabriel

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it to you. On September the 29th, 1871, a man named Thomas Lewiston opened a post office right inside his own mercantile store. That was the beginning of the village of South Gabriel, named for the South San Gabriel River, and some folks just called it Lewiston, after the man himself.

It sat along the Austin-Burnet Road, which meant travelers were passing through, and a hamlet with travelers passing through tends to grow. And grow it did. Before long, South Gabriel had two stores, a hotel, a saloon, a cotton gin, a school, a church, and shops for wagon work, saddlery, blacksmithing, and carpentry.

For a place you may never have heard of, that is a full and busy little life. By 1880, thirty-nine souls called it home. Now, thirty-nine people is not a multitude, but it is a community.

It is Sunday mornings and Saturday nights. It is cotton bein' ginned and saddles bein' stitched and someone always bangin' on an anvil somewhere. Here is where the story turns, though.

In 1882, the Austin and Northwestern Railroad came through the region, and it passed to the north of South Gabriel. Not through it. North of it.

Two miles north, to be precise. And on December the 8th of that same year, 1882, the post office moved to the new town of Bertram, two miles north, right where that railroad had set down its tracks. And South Gabriel disappeared.

Just like that. The road had made it. The railroad, runnin' just a little ways off, unmade it.

Thirty-nine people, two stores, a hotel, a saloon, a cotton gin, and all those busy little shops. Gone. Some stories don't end.

This one did.

What the marker says

The South Gabriel Post Office opened in Postmaster Thomas Lewiston's mercantile store on Sept. 29, 1871. The village, named for the South San Gabriel River, was also called Lewiston. Located on the Austin-Burnet Road, the hamlet soon had two stores, a hotel, saloon, cotton gin, school, church, and wagon, saddle, blacksmith, and carpentry shops. The population in 1880 was 39. The Austin and Northwestern Railroad passed to the north of the settlement in 1882, and on Dec. 8, 1882, the post office moved to the new town of Bertram (2 miles N) and South Gabriel disappeared.