MIKESKA, TEXAS. Mikeska is on the right bank of the Nueces River five miles southeast of George West in Live Oak County. The townsite was platted in 1916, when the San Antonio, Uvalde, and Gulf Railroad came through the small community that had grown up around the ranch of Peter Mikeska, a Czech immigrant from Zadverice, Moravia, who had settled in the area in 1892. The community of Mikeska at one time had a school, general store, dance hall, post office, cotton gin, and depot. In 1918 the town unsuccessfully vied with George West to be the county seat. In 1925 its population was estimated at 100. Following the death of its founder in 1928, the town dwindled almost to nothing. The post office, opened in 1903, seems to have closed in the late 1940s. Today only a few houses and unpaved roads remain. In 2000 the population was listed as ten.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: William Elsik, "Peter Mikeska," in Astride the Old San Antonio Road: A History of Burleson County, Texas, ed. Burleson County Historical Society (Dallas: Taylor, 1980). Live Oak County Centennial Association, Live Oak County Centennial (George West, Texas, 1956). Vestnik, June 20, 1956.
