LA SALLE, TEXAS (La Salle County). La Salle was just east of Cotulla in western La Salle County. The town was established in 1881 by Jesse Laxton, the postmaster of Iuka. After learning that the International and Great Northern Railroad planned to extend its tracks into La Salle County, Laxton surveyed and laid out his town in the railroad's path; knowing that an 1858 state law specified that a county seat should bear the same name as its county, Laxton named his town La Salle. La Salle had a post office from 1881 to 1883. In 1882 it was designated the temporary county seat, and that year county records were transferred there. The next year a jail was constructed on the site, joining the temporary courthouse that had already been built. That same year, in a special county election, voters chose to move the county seat to Cotulla, which was just across the railroad tracks; La Salle was eventually absorbed into the new county seat.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Stanley D. Casto, Settlement of the Cibolo-Nueces Strip: A Partial History of La Salle County (Hillsboro, Texas: Hill Junior College Press, 1969). Annette Martin Ludeman, La Salle: La Salle County (Quanah, Texas: Nortex, 1975).

John Leffler