NEWBURG, TEXAS. Newburg is at the intersection of Farm roads 2561 and 1476, off State Highway 16 some ten miles south of Comanche in southern Comanche County. The site was settled in December 1854, when it was known as South Leon, for the nearby South Leon River. The first school in the community was taught in 1896 in a log house. In July 1872 the South Leon Baptist Church was organized and met in the log schoolhouse. The church membership reached forty-eight in 1875; the earliest grave in the community cemetery dates from that year. Sometime thereafter the congregation moved to a second building that was constructed near the cemetery; this building was also used as a school. The Lee post office, most likely named for Add Lee, a prominent early settler, was opened in the community in 1883. The name of the post office was changed to Newburg in 1884 at the suggestion of Lee. In 1890 Newburg had a population of eighteen and a general store, and by 1896 it also had a cotton gin, a gristmill, and a blacksmith shop. In 1906 a new Baptist church was built, and this third church was still standing in the 1990s. The post office closed in 1908. Newburg had an estimated population of seventy-four in 1936, and in 1937 the school there had 101 students and four teachers. In 1940 the community consisted of the school, the church, the cemetery, one business, and scattered dwellings. The school was consolidated with those of Comanche during the 1950s. The population of Newburg was estimated at seventy-four until 1968 and at thirty-five from 1968 through 2000.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Comanche County Bicentennial Committee, Patchwork of Memories: Historical Sketches of Comanche County, Texas (Brownwood, Texas: Banner Printing, 1976).

Mark Odintz