BRACKEN, TEXAS (Comal County). Bracken, on the International-Great Northern Railroad 13½ miles southwest of New Braunfels in southern Comal County, was named for William Bracken, who acquired land in the area in 1849. The townsite on the new railroad was named Davenport for James G. Davenport, who settled there in 1868. With the growth of the community and the building of a gin and stores, residents applied for a post office. The name was changed from Davenport to Bracken in 1883 because a Davenport post office had already been established in the state. In 1940 the post office had been discontinued, and the population was reported as fifty. After World War II the Davenport school was consolidated with the schools of Solms and Danville to form Comal Elementary School. The population of Bracken stabilized around seventy-five in the 1970s. In 1990 it was still seventy-five, and in 2000 it was seventy-six.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Oscar Haas, History of New Braunfels and Comal County, Texas, 1844-1946 (Austin: Steck, 1968).
