HYNESVILLE, TEXAS. Hynesville, on the south side of Hynes Bay six miles south of the site of present Tivoli in eastern Refugio County, was named for John and Peter Hynes, the first settlers on the bay. From 1850 to 1859 the settlement had a public school; after the Civil War the school operated out of a local home. The trading community, near a live oak mott by the Hynes homestead, was known as Crescent Village after the Hynes family moved about the time of the Civil War. Crescent Village had a post office from 1874 to 1875. Its citizens also erected a wharf, a warehouse, a school, and two stores. Provisions were brought in by boat from Indianola, Rockport, and Lavaca. The alligators that infested Hynes Bay reportedly attacked and killed several settlers. Crescent Village was abandoned after Newton C. Gullett opened a post office at Tivoli in 1877.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Hobart Huson, Refugio: A Comprehensive History of Refugio County from Aboriginal Times to 1953 (2 vols., Woodsboro, Texas: Rooke Foundation, 1953, 1955).
