OLDENBURG, TEXAS. Oldenburg is on State Highway 237 seven miles northeast of La Grange in northeastern Fayette County. It was founded in 1886 by either Gus Steenken or Johann Schmitt and was named for the Oldenburg province in Germany, from which they came. A post office was established at the site in 1887, and by 1900 the community, which depended on cotton as a cash crop, had two stores, a saloon, a physician's office, a blacksmith shop, a gin, and a community dance hall. Residents in the area voted in either Rutersville or Warrenton. Oldenburg had five businesses and a population of 150 in 1950. The decline in cotton production in the 1960s caused the gin and several other businesses to close. The blacksmith shop was bought at auction in 1983 and moved to a historic theme park. In 1985 no rated businesses remained to serve the remaining population of fifty-four people, who were involved primarily with ranching. The population in 1990 was still reported as fifty-four. By 2000 the population dropped to thirty.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Frank Lotto, Fayette County: Her History and Her People (Schulenburg, Texas: Sticker Steam Press, 1902; rpt., Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981).

Jeff Carroll