Weser

Weser, on U.S Highway 183 fourteen miles north of Goliad in northern Goliad County, was settled in 1881 and named after the ship that brought the first Polish immigrants to Galveston in 1854. (The ship, in turn, was named for the river in Germany.) The Weser post office was established in 1881, and by 1885 the town had a Lutheran church and school, a steam gristmill and cotton gin, a general store, telegraph facilities, and daily stage service to Cuero and Goliad. By 1892 Weser had ten businesses, including another steam mill and gin, two blacksmiths, two carpenters, a musician, and a saloon. The population was 150 in 1890 and 1896 and 153 in 1904. About 1900 Weser had a Sons of Herman lodge, a brass band, and a dance hall. A school was built three years later. The town began to decline by the 1920s. The post office was closed in 1928, and the school was later consolidated with the Weesatche school district. Only one cotton gin was listed at Weser in 1914, and the number of businesses declined to two by 1931. The population was reported as fifty from 1933 to 1990. For many years the Goliad Advance carried a column called "Weser Siftings" written by Johnny (J. A. P.) Arnold.