Nixon

Nixon is at the intersection of U.S. Highway 87, State Highway 97, and Farm Road 1117, on the Wilson county line twenty-six miles southwest of Gonzales in southwestern Gonzales County. It was founded when the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway built through the John T. Nixon Ranch in 1906 and the Nixon family formed a land company to sell off town lots on the site. By midyear the settlement had a cotton gin, a meat market, a barber, a doctor, a general store, a bank, and a lumberyard. The community was granted a post office under the name Nixonville in 1906, and the name was shortened to Nixon in 1908. Most of the people from the nearby community of Rancho had moved to Nixon by 1908; the Rancho school had also moved to Nixon by that year. The Rancho Baptist Church followed in 1911. Nixon incorporated in 1912 and by 1914 had 1,300 residents, three cotton gins, three general stores, an independent school district, the weekly Nixon News, and telephone service. The community received electrical service in 1916. The population of Nixon declined to 1,124 in 1920 and to 1,037 in 1930, but during the 1930s it began to grow again, reaching 1,835 in 1940, when seventy businesses were reported there. Thereafter the population level ranged between 1,750 and 2,000 and in 1990 was 1,995. Local railroad service was discontinued about 1970, and in the mid-1980s poultry processing was one of the leading industries in the community. By 2000 the population was 2,186.

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.