Williams

Caney, formerly Caney Crossing, is on Farm Road 457 seven miles east of Bay City in eastern Matagorda County. The site was settled as early as 1838 and received its name from Caney Creek, an old bed of the Colorado River, which flowed through a dense canebrake. Caney had a post office as early as 1838, when Robert H. Williams was postmaster. This post office closed in 1846, then reopened in 1847 and closed again in 1914. In 1884 Caney reported a population of 130 and a church, a school, a doctor, a general store, a stock breeder, and five cotton gins. By 1896 its reported population had increased to 140, and by 1914 it was 200. In 1936 the town had one business, a cemetery, and about 150 residents. By 1949 the Caney school had been consolidated with the Van Vleck Independent School District, and by 1950 Caney's population had dwindled to about forty. In the late 1960s its population was estimated at 296. It was still reported at that level in 1990, but around that time Caney was shown on the county highway map as only a loose cluster of dwellings. In 2000 the population was 300.