Algoa

Algoa, located on State Highway 6 in northern Galveston County, was founded in 1880 on the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway, which later formed a junction with the St. Louis, Brownsville and Santa Fe at the townsite. The community was named Hughes and was equipped with telephone service as early as 1893. The Algoa post office opened in 1897. Some sources have claimed that the town was named for a British tanker, the Algoaian, which was blown ashore during the Galveston hurricane of 1900, but the name clearly predates that event. Local farmers grew pears, satsumas, strawberries, and magnolia figs. The Alvin Fruit and Nursery Company, incorporated by R. H. Bushway in 1900, expanded rapidly. The first Algoa school was built near the Brazoria county line and in 1910 employed three teachers. By the 1920s rice and dairy farming had become major parts of the economy. Schools in Algoa became a part of the Santa Fe Consolidated School District in 1928. Algoa grew from a population of fifty in 1920 to 350 in 1940. In 1957 the Milwhite Mud Industry was built to serve the nearby oilfields. The post office closed in 1972, and mail was sent through Alvin or Arcadia. In 1982 Algoa had a drive-in grocery store, a gas station, a restaurant, an auction barn, an antique shop, a roller rink, a horse-race training track, four to five beer parlors, three fig farms, and the mud industry. In 1980, 1990, and 2000 the population was reported as 135.