INEZ, TEXAS. Inez is on U.S. Highway 59 fifteen miles northeast of Victoria near the Jackson county line in Victoria County. The townsite was originally called Arenosa after the nearby creek and had a post office in 1851-52 and from 1877 to 1883. Rancher Henry Clay Koontz (see KOONTZ RANCH) settled in the area in 1881 and operated a store on Arenosa Creek. In 1882 the New York, Texas and Mexican Railway connected Rosenberg and Victoria and established a station at the site, which was renamed Inez in honor of the daughter of Count Joseph Telfener,^qv president and builder of the railroad. Two years later the post office was reestablished, and Koontz bought the Inez townsite and moved there. In 1900 the town had a lumberyard, a railway station, a bank, a hotel, and a Wells Fargo office. A rural school served its growing population, which reached 200 by 1920. In 1974 the population of Inez was estimated at 309. The community is a ranching and grain-farming center and the site of the Koontz and Keeran oilfields. In 1985 it still had the post office, more than a dozen businesses that catered to busy highway traffic, Catholic and Lutheran churches, a five-grade school, and a community hall that was rebuilt in 1962 after being destroyed by Hurricane Carla (see HURRICANES). Historic sites in the area are Nuestra Señora del Espíritu Santo de Zúñiga Mission, Nuestra Señora de Loreto Presidio, and Fort St. Louis.^qqv The population of Inez in 1990 was 1,371 and grew to 1,787 in 2000.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Roy Grimes, ed., 300 Years in Victoria County (Victoria, Texas: Victoria Advocate, 1968; rpt., Austin: Nortex, 1985). John C. Rayburn, "Count Joseph Telfener and the New York, Texas, and Mexican Railway Company," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 68 (July 1964). Victoria Advocate, Progress Edition, March 10, 1963.

Craig H. Roell