KOVAR, TEXAS. Kovar is eight miles south of Smithville in southeastern Bastrop County. It was named for an early settler, Martin Kovar, who arrived in the area around 1870. A thirty-member Czech-Moravian church was organized by Rev. Jindrich Jurenqv in 1894. The early economy was based on agriculture and the presence of a cotton gin. The Kovar post office was established in 1903 with Frank Rundus as postmaster, but the site never developed into a full-fledged town. The post office closed in 1914, and apparently no population figures have ever been kept. In the 1980s the area's economy centered upon ranching.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Clinton Machann and James W. Mendl, Krásná Amerika: A Study of the Texas Czechs, 1851-1939 (Austin: Eakin Press, 1983). Bill Moore, Bastrop County, 1691-1900 (Wichita Falls: Nortex, 1977).
Paula Mitchell Marks
