Monteola

Monteola is on Farm Road 2985 twenty-four miles north of Beeville in extreme northern Bee County. It was settled before 1880 by George Cook, an Englishman, and his daughter, Eliza. The community was called Butler's Neighborhood or Butler's in 1883 because L. G. and A. B. Butler operated a ranch nearby. Mase Lynch, who operated the first store and gin, reportedly named the settlement Monteola for a traveling salesman named Monty and the salesman's wife, Ola. In 1939 a store and a gin were in operation at the site. Many of the residents later moved away, and in the early 1990s only a few scattered houses remained.