ORELIA, TEXAS. Orelia is a farm and ranch community located on Mustang Creek off a graded road one mile northeast of Farm Road 1582 and twenty miles east of Dilley in far southeast Frio County. A post office was established in the community in 1900; Collin DeVilbiss was postmaster. Some of the earliest families in the area were the Applewhites and Schorps. An eight-grade rural school was established sometime in the early 1920s; the schoolhouse served as a community and religious center. In 1929 the community had several dwellings near the school. That number had more than doubled by 1948, when two bladed earth roads met at Orelia. Only a few dwellings remained in 1969. By 1989 Orelia had only a few scattered dwellings and a community center.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Mrs. W. A. Roberts, "Frio County Has a Colorful History," Frontier Times, June 1936.

Ruben E. Ochoa