Oso

Cost is on State Highway 97 six miles west of Gonzales in central Gonzales County. It formed as a community when German settlers began arriving in the area during the 1890s. The community was first known as Oso, but its name was changed to Cost when its post office was established in 1897 in Samuel C. Hindman's store. The first shot in the war for Texas independence (see TEXAS REVOLUTION) was fired a mile east of the site of Cost on October 2, 1835. In downtown Cost, on March 14, 1937, Governor James Allred dedicated a monument commemorating this event. The first business in the original settlement was a general store opened by pioneer rancher J. B. Wells for employees on his 10,000-acre ranch to the west. A saloon followed, but both it and the store were closed by 1890. An influx of German cotton farmers led to the need for a cotton gin, and in 1892 William Muenzler moved his gin from Cummins Creek in Fayette County to Oso. This gin continued as a Muenzler family operation until 1923, when it was purchased by W. F. Gandre. The Gandre family closed it in 1950, when cotton was no longer significant to the area as a cash crop.

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.