Keechi

Keechi is on Farm Road 832 one mile south of U.S. Highway 75 and eighteen miles north of Centerville in northern Leon County. It is named after the Keechi Indians, who used to camp in the area. In the late 1870s the Missouri Pacific Railroad reached town. In 1884 Keechi had a population of thirty, two churches, and a school. By 1890 it had a church, a general store, a mill and gin, and one physician. Mail was delivered on horseback until 1872, when the first post office was established with Francis Eldridge as postmaster. This post office closed in 1890. Between 1895 and 1906 the town had a post office by the name of Fay. The post office operated as Keechi again from 1906 until sometime after 1930. In 1907 Keechi had a one-teacher school with fifty-nine pupils. In 1940 the town had a population of 200, several stores, a church, a four-teacher school and a second school for Mexican Americans, section houses, cafes, and several other businesses. By the late 1960s, however, the population had fallen to fifty-three. In 1990 the town had sixty-seven residents; children attended the Buffalo schools.