Halsted

Halsted is on the crossing of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad and Fayette County Road 124, five miles east of La Grange in eastern Fayette County. Land in the area was settled by pioneers Robert E. B., John, and George Wythe Baylor and during the 1840s and 1850s attracted Anglo and German immigrants. In 1887 the Taylor, Bastrop and Houston Railway completed its line to Boggy Tank, five miles east of Halsted. John C. Wessels established a store, gin, lumberyard, and saloon in 1896, and a post office was established in 1900. The growth of nearby La Grange, Ellinger, Fayetteville, and Rutersville caused the community to decline. The Wessels enterprises closed, and the post office was discontinued after 1930. In 1986 the extended community had approximately twelve families involved in farming, ranching, and chicken raising. The population was reported as forty-six in 1990 but had dropped to twenty-six in 2000.