GRASSYVILLE, TEXAS. Grassyville, fourteen miles east of Bastrop in far eastern Bastrop County, was settled by German immigrants around 1856. They quickly formed a community and established a private school for their children. Early settlers included August and Fred Hamff, Albert Orts, and Ben Behrens. The small agricultural community became a center for members of the German Methodist Church. A parsonage was built in 1858, and the first church building in the community was completed ten years later. In 1877 a Grassyville post office was established outside the community's boundaries and over the county line in Lee County. Two years later it was transferred to Bastrop County but was soon discontinued and reestablished in Lee County. The post office once more opened in Bastrop County in 1883. In 1884 Grassyville had a population of seventy-five and two churches, a steam gristmill, a cotton gin, and a district school. In 1887, 1893, and 1899, Grassyville was the site of the annual conference of the German Methodist Church. The post office was again discontinued in 1887, reopened in 1899, and finally closed in 1906. A Grassyville district school was still in operation in 1933, but by that time the population was reported as ten. From 1939 to 1990 population estimates for Grassyville remained at fifty.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: William Henry Korges, Bastrop County, Texas: Historical and Educational Development (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1933). Bill Moore, Bastrop County, 1691-1900 (Wichita Falls: Nortex, 1977).

Paula Mitchell Marks