Central

Central is a predominantly Czech farming community on a road between Farm roads 1349 and 888 some four miles south of Beeville in southwestern Bee County. The settlement is named for its location midway between Beeville and Olmos. Central was first settled in 1874 by Henry T. Clare, a native of Missouri, and his sons, John, Bud, Gus, Hillery, and Thomas. James B. Madray and Tom and Henderson Allsup of Tennessee arrived around this same time. Later settlers included Charles Sugarek, Jim Doubrava, and Valentine, Stephen, and Frank Kubala, who arrived around 1889. In 1888 the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway was constructed between Skidmore and Alice; it ran five miles east of Central. The community's first schoolhouse was built sometime in the early 1890s, and in 1905 the school had one teacher and twenty-seven students. Around 1915 a larger school was built. In 1938 a second teacher was hired, and the school offered seven grades. In the 1970s grain, flax, broomcorn, and cotton were the principal local crops. After the Central school was consolidated with the Beeville Independent School District, its schoolhouse was converted into a community center, where parties and dances were still held in the late 1980s. At that time the community still gathered on the first Saturday of the month for a covered-dish dinner at the community center, and Central's largest annual event was the Fourth of July barbecue and dance. Also at that time the local gravel road was being transformed from a county road to a Farm Road at a cost of $400,000.