CLEMONS, TEXAS. Clemons (Clemens, Clemons Switch) is a rural community of scattered dwellings on the east side of Irons Creek near Farm Road 1458 seven miles northwest of Brookshire in southern Waller County. A switch on the Texas Western Narrow Gauge railroad was at the site. The community is named for an early settler, Martin Key Clemons, who operated a general store that also housed a post office from 1885 to 1888. A Clemons church existed as early as 1883 and a school by 1892. Clemons was a home of Edwin A. Wallerqv, for whom Waller County is named.
Competition from neighboring Pattison, which had a railroad depot and a turntable, slowed Clemons's growth. The railroad ceased operations in 1899. A school for black children operated at Clemons in the 1930s. During the 1960s the community had two churches, Wades Chapel and Wesley Chapel, as well as five cemeteries. In 1990 a few homes remained in the community, and children attended classes in the Royal Independent School District in Brookshire.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Mildred W. Abshier, et al., Former Post Offices of Waller County (Hempstead, Texas: Waller County Historical Society, 1977). Corrie Pattison Haskew, Historical Records of Austin and Waller Counties (Houston: Premier Printing and Letter Service, 1969). Waller County Historical Survey Committee, A History of Waller County, Texas (Waco: Texian, 1973).
