SAMPLE, TEXAS. Sample, on U.S Highway 87 in southern Gonzales County, was named for a local family when the town became a switch on the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway, which built through the county during the 1870s. A post office opened there in 1905, and by 1915 Sample had a telephone connection, a blacksmith, a cotton gin, two general stores, and a population of seventy-five. By 1936 the community had a school, though the population had fallen to fifty and the number of businesses to one. The population had dropped to twenty-five by 1965, when no businesses were recorded, and continued to be estimated at twenty-five through 2000. One business was reported there in 1985 and still remained as late as 1988.

Stephen L. Hardin