Fayetteville

Fayetteville is on State Highway 159 and Farm roads 955 and 1291, twelve miles east of La Grange in eastern Fayette County. It developed from a settlement formed by three families of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred—those of John Crier, James Cummins, and James J. Ross. The surrounding area was known as Ross Prairie, after Ross. The developing settlement was on the Old San Felipe to Bastrop road and was a stagecoach stop. In 1834 the Breeding family established nearby the first school in what would become Fayette County; some of James J. Ross's children attended classes there. The settlement was called Wadis Post Office in 1835. Jesse Burnam's ferry across the Colorado River was nearby, and during the Texas Revolution Sam Houston and his army used this ferry and then burned it on their march to San Jacinto. From the area came nine men who fought in the Texas Revolution, among them Jerome B. Alexander; the community was for a time called Alexander's Voting Place after him. It was also known as Lick Skillet (Lickskillet), supposedly for the fact that latecomers to the numerous community festivals who complained that all the food was gone were told to lick the skillet. By the 1830s some German immigrant settlers were arriving in the area. The Congress of the Republic of Texas established Fayette County in 1837, and the community of Fayetteville was officially founded shortly thereafter. It was named Fayetteville in 1844, for the birthplace of Philip J. Shaver of Fayetteville, North Carolina. Shaver surveyed the community, named the streets, and donated lots for the Fayetteville Academy and the multidenominational Union Church. Fayetteville had a post office and postmaster during the Republic of Texas, and as of the early 1990s the town had had continuous postal service since 1850.

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.