FORDTRAN, TEXAS. Fordtran, just west of U.S. Highway 77 and twenty miles north of Victoria in Victoria County, was named for Henry Fordtran, a Galveston real estate agent responsible for bringing settlers to the site from Tennessee and the Midwest in 1898. The area was once part of the 44 Ranch, which in 1844 covered parts of DeWitt, Victoria, and Goliad counties. By 1899 most of the ranch had been sold to developers. One factor in the location of the community may have been the promise of the Guadalupe Valley Railroad, which was to have run through the site on its way from Port O'Connor to Yoakum and Austin. Though the roadbed was built from the coast to Hallettsville by 1898, the line was never completed because funds ran out. Nevertheless, by 1900 the settlement was thriving. It had a post office from 1898 to about 1930. The Fordtran Oil Company was established in 1915. A rural common school was built at the community, and by 1920 Fordtran's population had risen to seventy-five. By the 1950s, however, the town was in decline. The Fordtran school was discontinued, after which area students attended classes within the Victoria Independent School District. Fordtran's population was reported as eighteen from 1974 through 2000.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Roy Grimes, ed., 300 Years in Victoria County (Victoria, Texas: Victoria Advocate, 1968; rpt., Austin: Nortex, 1985). Victoria Advocate, Progress Edition, March 10, 1963.
