RABB SWITCH, TEXAS. Rabb Switch is on U.S. Highway 90A five miles east of Hallettsville in northern Lavaca County. The land was originally granted to John Morris, a Methodist circuit rider. Dr. Edward M. Rabb, settled in the area during the 1880s. When the Texas and New Orleans Railroad crossed the Navidad River in 1918, a wood and water switch was built on his land. Two stores opened at the site, and a school built in the 1800s was moved to the community in 1919; at one time it had thirty to thirty-five students. Local residents cut and loaded firewood for shipment to Houston. The railroad ceased operations during the 1950s, at the same time that U.S. 90-A was improved. When the school was closed in 1953, students went to the Hallettsville Independent School District, and the population declined thereafter as businesses closed. During the 1980s two businesses were again established, and local residents petitioned the highway department for recognition on maps and for signs verifying their status as a community.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Paul C. Boethel, Sand in Your Craw (Austin: Von Boeckmann-Jones, 1959).

Jeff Carroll