RAISIN, TEXAS. Raisin, on U.S. Highway 59 eight miles southwest of Victoria in Victoria County, was established in 1889 as a stop on the Gulf, Western Texas and Pacific Railway line from Victoria to Goliad and Beeville. The railway company called the station Lucy, but the postal department insisted on a more distinctive name. When the local post office opened in 1892, the name Raisin was chosen in honor of rancher J. K. Reeves's efforts at growing grapes. The new town quickly became the focus of the nearby German settlement of Coletoville. C. G. T. Friedrichs, the first postmaster, built a gin, and Otto Kohl, the Wells Fargo agent, built a large general store and residence. Kohl, who emigrated from Germany in 1880 and lived in Yorktown and Germantown (later named Schroeder), also organized the local Sons of Hermannqv lodge and remained its secretary for forty-three years. He was postmaster from 1901 until 1914, when the office was closed upon the beginning of rural free delivery. The American Railway Express office, formerly Wells Fargo, closed in 1930 when Southern Pacific discontinued daytime passenger service and U.S. 59 was opened. The population of the Raisin-Coletoville area remained about fifty from the early 1900s to 1986. In 1990 Raisin reported a population of fifty.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Victoria Advocate, Progress Edition, March 10, 1963. The Victoria Sesquicentennial "Scrapbook" (Victoria, Texas: Victoria Advocate, 1974).
Craig H. Roell
