O'QUINN, TEXAS. O'Quinn is on Farm Road 609 seven miles southwest of La Grange in central Fayette County. The name is probably derived from that of an early Irish settler. One local legend, however, attributes it to an Indian chief by that name. O'Quinn was settled by Anglo Americans about 1838, but during the 1840s they were displaced by a wave of German immigrants, with family names such as Duellberg, Melcher, Luck, Dickert, Bruns, and Voigt. Because of the proximity of other small farming communities, growth was slow. A post office was established there in 1882, and by 1900 the settlement had two stores, a gin, and a blacksmith shop. Most residents voted at Black Jack Springs (later Pin Oak) and attended church at other locations. O'Quinn for a time had two fraternal lodges and a well-known teacher of piano and violin. Its post office was closed in 1911, and mail was delivered from La Grange. By 1950 only one business remained, and the area had a population of twenty-five. During the 1960s local farmers stopped growing cotton, and much land reverted to pasture for cattle or was converted to the production of corn or hay. During the 1980s some of the ranchland in the area was divided into small holdings to attract weekend residents from urban centers. The town had two businesses, and the expanded community claimed about 122 part-time residents. The official population was recorded as twenty-five in 1990 and again in 2000.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Frank Lotto, Fayette County: Her History and Her People (Schulenburg, Texas: Sticker Steam Press, 1902; rpt., Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981). Leonie Rummel Weyand and Houston Wade, An Early History of Fayette County (La Grange, Texas: La Grange Journal, 1936).

Jeff Carroll