St. Elmo

St. Elmo was four miles south of Austin in south central Travis County. A post office was moved there from Tumey's Store in 1875, and William W. Puckett served as postmaster. In the mid-1880s St. Elmo had a school and twenty-five residents, and by the early 1890s it had 200 residents and a general store, a saloon, and a cotton gin. St. Elmo had begun to decline by 1900; its post office was discontinued in 1902 and community mail was sent to Austin. By 1904 the population had fallen to 104. St. Elmo became the focus of a common school district in 1914, but it was consolidated with the Austin Independent School District in 1937. The St. Elmo townsite was eventually absorbed into Austin, and by the 1960s the site of the first St. Elmo school was located in the 4700 block of South First Street.