CORNELIA, TEXAS. Cornelia was eighteen miles southeast of George West in Live Oak County. It was founded in 1913, when the San Antonio, Uvalde and Gulf Railroad built tracks into the area, and was named for Cornelia (Cox) Staples, the wife of Henry Staples, who owned the townsite land. The community was granted a post office in 1915, and around that time a store opened there. Staples donated two acres for a cemetery that was used by the local Mexican-American population. Cornelia lost its post office in 1918, and by the next year its store had closed. A 1936 county highway map shows only a railroad depot at the site. After the Nueces River was dammed in 1958 to form Lake Corpus Christi, the railroad tracks were moved, the graves from Cornelia's cemetery were removed, and the site was inundated by the new lake.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Live Oak County Historical Commission, The History of the People of Live Oak County (George West, Texas, 1982).
