PERRYVILLE, TEXAS (Bastrop County). Perryville, also known as Hogeye or Young's Settlement, was a small community located 2½ miles south of the site of present Elgin in Bastrop County. It was established on land which had been granted to Elizabeth Standifer^qv in 1829 as part of Stephen F. Austin's^qv "Little Colony." Standifer's daughter and son-in-law, Sarah and John Litton,^qv built their home on this land, and area residents were often invited there for community dances. According to one story, the name Hogeye came into use because the fiddle player only knew one song, which was called "Hogeye." The Litton house was also used as a changing station for a stagecoach route from Houston. Litton was appointed postmaster when a post office was established in the community in 1849, and the name Young's Settlement was chosen, probably in honor of the Michael Young family. The churches and the local Masonic lodge used the name Perryville, possibly for Perry Young, who was Michael Young's son.

At one time in the 1850s or 1860s Perryville had a saloon, a general store, two blacksmith shops, a grocery, and twelve to fifteen households. One unusual business venture, begun shortly after the Civil War,^qv used camels^qv as freight carriers. Bethel Coopwood^qv and Enon Lanfear bought thirty-two "U.S. Government Surplus" camels and attempted to use them to carry mail and other items between San Antonio, Brownsville, and Mexico City. They sold the camels to circuses and fairs when the venture failed. In 1871 the Houston and Texas Central Railroad bypassed Perryville by about two miles, and residents began moving their homes and businesses toward the railroad and what would become the city of Elgin. The Young's Settlement post office was discontinued in December 1872, and the community declined. Although Perryville was not labeled on county highway maps in the 1940s, a church and several scattered houses appeared in the vicinity; on county maps in the 1980s a local cemetery carried the name Hog Eye. No population estimates for Perryville were available.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Elgin Historical Committee, Elgin: A History of Elgin, Texas, 1872-1972 (Austin: Von Boeckmann-Jones, 1972). William Henry Korges, Bastrop County, Texas: Historical and Educational Development (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1933).

Vivian Elizabeth Smyrl