String Prairie

String Prairie is on State Highway 304 southwest of Rosanky in southern Bastrop County. A small settlement had sprung up on the site before the Civil War, and in 1886 a String Prairie post office was established with George Zimmerman as postmaster. In 1890 String Prairie had a population of twenty-five, a general store, a cotton gin, and a druggist. By 1914 the estimated population had grown to 400, and the community had three blacksmiths, as well as grocery, drug, and millinery establishments. In 1924 area residents approved a fifty-cent school tax and built a one-teacher school. The population soon declined, however, and the post office closed in 1929. By the 1930s the population was once again twenty-five. In the late 1940s it moved upward to fifty and in the late 1960s to seventy-five; it was still seventy-five in 1990. In 2000 the population was 125.

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.