GOLDFINCH, TEXAS. Goldfinch is at the southern terminus of Farm Road 472, fifteen miles east of Pearsall in eastern Frio County. It was probably established in the 1880s and is said to have been named by post office officials when a post office was applied for in 1916 or 1920. Goldfinch had a rural school between 1920 and 1928, and in 1929 it consisted of six dwellings. In 1932 Goldfinch resident J. C. Nations was reported to have produced 1,050 gallons of pure ribbon cane syrup. During the mid-1930s Goldfinch consisted of the post office, run at that time by a Mrs. Coxx, and a general store across the street, run by Mrs. Frankie Nations. By 1948 the community had two businesses and three dwellings, surrounded by several farms. By 1953 Goldfinch reported no businesses. Its population was estimated at fifteen from the mid-1920s to the 1960s, and by 1971 the number of residents had increased to an estimated thirty-five. The 1982 topographic map of the area showed at least eight dwellings at Goldfinch. In 1990 and 2000 the population was thirty-five.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Vertical Files, Pearsall Public Library, Pearsall, Texas (Frio County). Frances Cox Wood, Using the Social and Historical Heritage of Pearsall, Texas, in Teaching Fourth Grade Children (M.A. thesis, Southwest Texas State Teachers College, 1953).

Ruben E. Ochoa