AVOCA, TEXAS. Avoca is on State Highway 6 at the intersection of Farm roads 600 and 1636, eight miles southeast of Stamford in northeast Jones County. It was first called Spring Creek when it was founded in the early 1880s. The post office was established in 1893 and named Avo. With the construction of the Texas Central Railroad in 1900, J. L. Crostwaite moved his general store three miles to the track at Avo and changed the name of the new post office to Avoca. The population of the town reached a peak of 500 in 1908. Drought, depression, changing transportation patterns, and the appeal of neighboring towns later reduced Avoca's population. The town survived as a shipping point for livestock and cotton, but the population fell to 150 in 1940 and 121 in 1980. The population in 2000 was still 121.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Hooper Shelton and Homer Hutto, The First 100 Years of Jones County (Stamford, Texas: Shelton, 1978). Kathleen E. and Clifton R. St. Clair, eds., Little Towns of Texas (Jacksonville, Texas: Jayroe Graphic Arts, 1982). Fred Tarpley, 1001 Texas Place Names (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1980).

Connie Ricci