Southton

Southton is on the Southern Pacific Railroad off U.S. Highway 281, ten miles southeast of downtown San Antonio in southern Bexar County. The settlement became a townsite on the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway in the early 1900s. A post office was established in 1910, when the population was sixteen. In 1940 the town had a church, a school, a post office, and a population of twenty. The station was the shipping point for the Yturri-Southton oilfield. The community was the site of Bexar County Farms, San Antonio Cotton Mills, and a detention home called the Bexar County Boy's Home; the population, chiefly Lutheran, was ninety in 1946. The number of residents declined during the 1950s and early 1960s, and in 1965 Southton reported sixty residents and two businesses. Since that time Southton has grown slowly. In 1990 it had 113 inhabitants. The population remained the same in 2000.