CEDAR, TEXAS (Fayette County). Cedar was on Farm Road 609 five miles southwest of La Grange in Fayette County. It was originally settled before 1836 by Anglo-American colonists and incorporated into Fayette County by an act of the Republic of Texas on May 5, 1838. John Lewis was appointed justice of the peace. The community's name came from the many cedar trees in the area. During the late 1840s and 1850s a wave of German immigrants replaced most of the earlier settlers. A post office was established at the community in 1859, and a small cluster of businesses developed to meet the needs of the new settlers. Since there were many similar small communities in the vicinity, Cedar never grew much beyond a store, a saloon, a post office, a physician's office, and a large community hall. The cotton grown by local farmers was ginned at nearby Bluff, where residents also voted. Civic activities moved to nearby O'Quinn, and the local post office was discontinued in 1904. Cedar's store and saloon closed soon after, and in the 1980s only the cemetery remained to identify the site.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Frank Lotto, Fayette County: Her History and Her People (Schulenburg, Texas: Sticker Steam Press, 1902; rpt., Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981). Leonie Rummel Weyand and Houston Wade, An Early History of Fayette County (La Grange, Texas: La Grange Journal, 1936).
