Engle

Engle is on U.S. Highway 90 and the Southern Pacific Railroad, five miles west of Schulenburg and five miles east of Flatonia in southern Fayette County. The area was thinly settled by Bohemian and Czech immigrants in the 1850s, but their community focus was at Praha to the southwest. During the late 1870s Engle was established as a point on the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway. The community was named for J. E. Engle, an engineer on that line. The land around Engle is drained to the south by Brushy Creek and to the north by Rocky Creek and is fair for agriculture. A post office was established at the community in 1888 and the first store in 1890. By 1900 Engle had three saloons, two stores, a blacksmith shop, a tinsmith shop, a lumberyard, and a photography studio. Sometime after 1930 its post office closed. By 1950 the community reported six businesses serving a population of 250. Most of the land that had been used for cotton reverted to pasture during the 1960s. In 1990 four businesses and 106 residents were reported at Engle. The population remained the same in 2000.