Vineyard

Vineyard is at the intersection of U.S. Highway 380, State Highway 114, and Farm Road 1156, on Beans Creek, two miles south of Wizard Wells and thirteen miles southeast of Jacksboro in eastern Jack County. The current community of Vineyard is the second of that name to be located in Jack County. The original community of Vineyard, sometimes called Old Vineyard, was founded by George Washington Vineyard in the 1880s. Water found on the property was unfit for drinking, but cured G. W. Vineyard's chronic leg sores and eye disease. Vineyard received a post office in 1882, and in 1914 the name was changed to Wizard Wells. In 1890 the community had a population of 100, a general store, blacksmith, and a barber. A new community was formed two miles south of Wizard Wells, around the depot of the Chicago, Rock Island and Texas Railway, eventually called the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific, when it was constructed in 1899 from Bridgeport to Jacksboro. In 1915, when old Vineyard was renamed Wizard Wells, the new community centered around the depot took the name of Vineyard. The first settler to this Vineyard was Tom Anderson. After the arrival of the railroad Vineyard served as a retail and shipping center for the farming and ranching area. By 1925 the population of Vineyard was 212. In 1933 Vineyard was a thriving community with a brick school and three businesses, including several stores, but they no longer existed by the 1970s. The population had declined by the 1950s to forty, where it remained in 1990. In 2000 the population was thirty-seven, but declined to 19 by 2015.

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.