Komensky

Komensky is a farming community at the intersection of Farm roads 532 and 1295, fourteen miles northwest of Hallettsville in northwestern Lavaca County. Its boundaries are roughly equal to that of the old Lavaca County School District No. 6. In May 1895 a number of residents, primarily Czech, Moravian, and German newcomers to the area, met at the home of C. M. Karasek on Woods Prairie to plan the construction and operation of a school for their children. By the next fall a building had been completed at a cost of about $215, and in a subsequent election the school and the growing community were named in honor of Jan Amos Komensky (John A. Comenius), the noted seventeenth-century Czech-Moravian educator and bishop of the Protestant Moravian Unity of the Brethren Church. The community's school, rather than the church or a business district, remained the focal point of community life. Most business was conducted at nearby Breslau, Moravia, Novohrad, Witting, or Moulton. There was no post office, but a combination service and supply business met the immediate needs of farmers. Crops consisted primarily of cotton and corn. Through the years the school and its supporting facilities grew to accommodate well over 100 students in the first through seventh grades. By 1915 it was recognized as a model for rural schools in Texas. Consolidation after World War II deprived Komensky of its school but not its community spirit. Cotton was last grown in the area during the 1950s, and during the 1980s one farm service center remained to serve the needs of residents, who at that time grew corn, cattle, and hay.