Vienna (Cheney Settlement)

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. The community of Vienna, Lavaca County, has roots that reach all the way back to the Republic of Texas. And the man at the center of that story is a Maryland native named John Cheney, born in 1796, died in 1868, who brought his family to Texas in 1830.

Now here's the thing about that journey. He didn't come alone, and he didn't come by simple choice. His wife Lucy was a Native American, and she, along with other Native Americans, had been expelled from their home in Georgia.

That's the ground this whole story is built on. Displacement, and then a new beginning on the west bank of the Navidad River. John Cheney carved out a life in what was then Colorado County.

He served as Constable and Justice of the Peace. And his land. Well, at its peak, his home spread across more than seven thousand acres.

People started calling it Cheney Settlement, and the name stuck. Now, nothing stays the same, and the Cheney family eventually sold off portions of that great family farm. And when they did, new folks came rolling in.

German, Austrian, and Czech immigrants arrived and put down roots of their own. In 1873, a man named Benjamin Milby opened a post office, and he named it Vienna, in honor of the Austrian capital. So there it was.

A little piece of the Old World planted in Lavaca County soil. The settlement kept growing. Come the 1880s, a man named Pat Carvelle gave land for a school, and the community built it themselves, hauling the lumber all the way from Schulenburg.

Then John Mixon stepped in, operating a general store and the post office from 1885 to 1906. After Mixon, along came postmaster Louis Teltschick, who didn't stop at just the post office. He built and operated a cotton gin, a sawmill, a grist mill, and a blacksmith shop.

That is a man who kept busy. Vienna had a gentler side too. In the early twentieth century it was a popular picnic spot, with picturesque crossings of the Navidad River drawing folks out for a pleasant afternoon.

But the river that made the place scenic could also show its teeth. In July of 1940, a flood came through and severely damaged the gin complex. It was bad enough that the Louis Teltschick family had to take shelter in the upper portion of the gin just to ride it out.

That flood didn't finish Vienna, but it left a mark. And then there was the church. The congregation of Vienna Baptist Church had been founded back in the 1880s at a place called Seclusion, six miles to the southeast.

Around 1915, the congregation moved next to the school. That same year, the post office closed. The 1940s were hard on Vienna.

The gin closed. The school closed. Several stores closed.

And then in the 1950s, construction of Farm to Market Road 530 from Hallettsville to Edna hastened the dispersal of the community. When a new road bends around a place instead of through it, people tend to follow the road. Today, Vienna Baptist Church, standing one mile to the northeast, is the only surviving building of what was once a viable rural community.

It's all that's left of John Cheney's settlement, of Benjamin Milby's post office named for a distant capital, of Louis Teltschick's gin and sawmill and grist mill and blacksmith shop, of picnickers along the Navidad. One church, still standing, holding all of it.

What the marker says

The community of Vienna has roots that reach back to the Republic of Texas. Maryland native John Cheney (1796-1868) brought his family to Texas in 1830 when Native Americans, including his wife Lucy, were expelled from their home in Georgia. Cheney served as Constable and Justice of the Peace in what was then Colorado County. His home on the west bank of the Navidad River, once including more than 7,000 acres, became known as Cheney Settlement. The Cheney family sold off portions of the family farm, and an influx of German, Austrian and Czech immigrants arrived. In 1873, Benjamin Milby opened a post office named Vienna in honor of the Austrian capital. In the 1880s, Pat Carvelle gave land for a school, which the community built with lumber hauled from Schulenburg. John Mixon operated a general store and the post office from 1885 to 1906, followed by postmaster Louis Teltschick, who also built and operated a cotton gin, sawmill, grist mill and blacksmith shop. Vienna was also a popular picnic spot in the early 20th century, with picturesque crossings of the Navidad River nearby. A July 1940 flood severely damaged the gin complex, though, and sent the Louis Teltschick family to the upper portion of the gin for shelter. The congregation of Vienna Baptist Church, founded at Seclusion (6 mi. SE) in the 1880s, moved next to the school in about 1915, the same year the post office closed. During the 1940s, the gin, school and several stores closed, and construction of Farm to Market Road 530 from Hallettsville to Edna in the 1950s hastened the dispersal of Vienna. Today, Vienna Baptist Church (1 mi. NE) is the only surviving building of this once viable rural community. (2006)