Placedo

Placedo is on U.S. Highway 87 fourteen miles southeast of Victoria in Victoria County. Both Placedo Creek and the town are named for Plácido Benavides, who joined Martín De León's colony in 1828. He married one of the empresario's daughters and established a ranch in the area five years later. A settlement has existed at the site since the Republic of Texas era. The San Antonio and Mexican Gulf Railway established a station at Placedo in 1860, and in 1906 the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico route crossed the old line and renamed the station Placedo Junction. E. E. Pickering and John W. Henderson, owners of the land, platted the town of Placedo in 1910, added gutters and sidewalks, and recruited new citizens. The Victoria Advocate reported that "For a good many years it was a bit embarrassing to Victorians to hear that `Placedo has more sidewalks than the City of Victoria.'" A post office was secured in 1906, and by 1920 the community of 300 supported a bank, a school, a gin, a pharmacy, a hotel, and a number of other businesses. A hurricane damaged most of the town a few years later, and the estimated population decreased to 100 by 1925. Rebuilding was slow until oil and gas development started in 1935. By the 1940s the town had eighteen businesses and 400 residents. The population estimate dropped to 220 in 1949 and rose to 480 in 1964 and 515 in 1974. In 1985 Placedo had a dance hall, a gin, oil and gas production, farming and ranching operations, and an elementary school that was part of the Bloomington Independent School District. In 1990 the population was 515. The population grew to 760 by 2000.