Edgar

Edgar is on U.S. Highway 77A about seven miles northeast of Cuero in northeastern DeWitt County. In 1853 James Edgar brought his family to the area and claimed the land granted to his son, Joseph Smith Edgar, for his service in the Texas Revolution. In 1887 the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway located a depot in the area and named it for these early settlers. The Grassbur school served the area in the 1880s. An Edgar school was established in 1888, and the Grassbur school was merged with it. The local post office was also established in 1888. In 1890 the community had daily mail delivered by rail, a general store, and a population of twenty-five, and by 1915 a reported 100 residents supported a Wells Fargo office, at least one store, the school, and a cotton gin; the community also had telephone service. A Cumberland Presbyterian church also served the community for some years. The local Baptist church operated until 1947. The Edgar post office was discontinued in 1940, and the school closed in 1951. Only fifty people were recorded as living in Edgar from the mid-1920s to the late 1940s; thereafter, no population figures were available for several decades, though in 1948 Edgar had a black Baptist church, a grocery, and a chicken hatchery. The 1983 county highway map indicated a church and a business at Edgar. In 2000 the population was eight.