Ashby

Ashby is off Farm Road 1095 just north of a residential development called Tres Palacios Oaks, nine miles northeast of Palacios in west central Matagorda County. Before settlers arrived, the area had been a campsite of the Karankawa Indians. Though the settlement may have had a church as early as 1869, it did not receive a post office until 1890, when Capt. W. W. Moore opened a general store on the banks of Tres Palacios River. Moore, a Civil War veteran, named the community after his commanding officer in the Eighth Texas Cavalry. Boats made regular stops at his general store; at that time the river was navigable to Deming's Bridge (later known as Hawley), about six miles upriver. Moore, who built a twelve-room house called the Oaks at Ashby to accommodate his large family, donated two acres of land for a Methodist church and cemetery. At one time the Ashby church, served by ministers on the Matagorda Circuit, had as many as 100 members; it was destroyed by fire in 1902.

In 1892 Ashby reported a population of 100, a barber, a carpenter, and a physician, and by 1896 the community had a daily stage to El Campo. Initially Ashby's economic mainstays were rice and cotton, which were warehoused on the banks of the Tres Palacios. Later, grain became a major crop. In 1899 Ashby had a school with one teacher and twenty-eight students; by 1904 the number of students had risen to forty. Until the community built a school in 1911, classes were taught in private homes. In 1914 Ashby reported a population of 150, served by two general stores and the Ashby Farms Company, and by 1917 the community reported White and black schools, each with four grades.