Navidad

Navidad is on Farm Road 822 ten miles west of Edna in the Navidad gas field in northwestern Jackson County. Soon after 1845 German immigrant John Jacob Knopp settled the area. Navidad functioned as a mail stop from 1869 to 1882, 1891 to 1918, and 1920 to the late 1950s, at which time the post office closed for the last time. By 1892 the community was on the New York, Texas and Mexican Railway and by 1896 its population had reached 200. By 1914 Navidad had acquired a telephone connection and become a banking and shipping center for local farmers. By 1926, however, the population had dwindled to twenty-eight. In 1936 Navidad consisted of a rural school, one business establishment, and about seventeen farms running along a bladed earth road. From 1926 to 1969 the number of residents hovered around twenty-eight, but by 1988 Navidad consisted of little more than widely scattered dwellings. The population grew to 227 by 2000.