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Ghost town between Cuero and Gonzales (gallery)

  • Photo by photos by ANGELI WRIGHT/AWRIGHT@ VICAD.COM •
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The Cheapside Community Church is the most recognizable landmark of the ghost town, located just on the Gonzales County side of the line between Gonzales and DeWitt counties. The church was originally in nearby Bellevue, where a cemetery established in 1893 still serves what is left of the rural community.
  • Originally published June 21, 2012 at midnight, updated June 21, 2012 at midnight

A stark, white church sits atop a hill overlooking a valley bathed in the golden light of a South Texas sunset. As the sun peeks through the windows, it would appear that a nonexistent congregation was worshipping inside. Despite the illusion, tire tracks, an empty paint can and a discarded pair of paint-splattered-blue-jeans are the only signs of life in a town that once was.

Located 18 miles northwest of Cuero and 19 miles southeast of Gonzales, just on the Gonzales side of the line shared with DeWitt County, lies Cheapside, an actual ghost town.

The first settlers came to Cheapside in and around 1857, establishing a small agricultural community focused on cotton for profit and livestock, poultry and grain for survival. Named by Dr. E. R. Henry, a local doctor of English decent from Cheapside, Va., the settlement began to grow on the plot of rolling prairie overlooking the valley and shaded by oak trees.

An historical marker boasts that the area was once home to "a cotton gin, grist mill, hotel, grocery stores, saloons and a variety of other businesses."

Although a few homesteads and ranch land still exist in the small community, one cannot find the bustle historically recorded.

In the heart of the town, on County Roads 296 and 297B, all that remains of this former life are a few buildings teetering on collapse that become less and less visible through the trees and weeds, which have started to reclaim the abandoned town.

With the exception of a few small fires and notable storms, no great disaster has befallen the town, which had a population of 150 in 1904. People simply packed up and left, leaving Cheapside to fall down, piece-by-piece.

It's not hard for one to see why local rumors circulate that the ghost town is still inhabited by the spirits of former residents. In the eerily lonely setting, the low moan of trucks carrying materials from nearby oil drilling sites could almost be mistaken for the grieving ghosts of former settlers and the sudden sound of a not-so-distant cow is enough to make a not-so-skeptical photographer jump a little.

Source: The Handbook of Texas Online www.tshaonline.org

The History of Gonzales County, Texas by the Gonzales County Historical Commission (Tex.)