BURNELL, TEXAS. Burnell, on Farm Road 743 east of U.S. Highway 181 in extreme southern Karnes County, was a rural community that developed for cotton farming in the early 1900s. The settlement was named for Burnell Butler, a pioneer of Karnes County, and had a school, a cotton gin, and several businesses. The discovery of the Burnell oil and gas field resulted in the construction of a gas plant in the 1960s. In 1990 everything was gone except the name.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Robert H. Thonhoff, History of Karnes County (M.A. thesis, Southwest Texas State College, 1963).
