Vine Grove

Vine Grove (Vinegrove) was in western Washington County. This populous settlement was a supply and market center for a prosperous agricultural area. In this vicinity James H. Holt who had been granted 1,280 acres of land by the Republic of Texas in 1838, first settled on a hill just south of the La Bahía Road and adjacent to Mill Creek during the republic. The Vine Grove community grew up nearby. In June 1851 Holt became Vine Grove's first postmaster. By 1860 the community's 280 residents included two merchants, one blacksmith, a carpenter, and a teacher, as well as an English horticulturist, Thomas Darby.

German immigration gave considerable impetus to the formation of new rural communities in Washington and surrounding counties, and by the eve of the Civil War a majority of Vine Grove's inhabitants were German immigrants. But when rail transportation came to western Washington County it bypassed Vine Grove, and the settlement declined. The post office was closed in July 1872. A Texas historical marker at the Holt family cemetery on Greenvine road 3½ miles south of Burton commemorates the site of Holt's land grant and the probable location of Vine Grove. Only the small Holt family cemetery and Holt's stone fireplace remain in the vicinity. Much of the land in the area is now part of Willow Springs Ranch.