OLD SOMERSET, TEXAS. Old Somerset was twenty miles southwest of San Antonio in northern Atascosa County. It was founded in 1848 by a group of Baptists from Somerset, Kentucky. It had a post office from 1867 to 1907 and a population of 100 in 1884. By 1890 that figure had declined to fifty. No further population figures were available for Old Somerset. During the 1890s Old Somerset had a steam gristmill and gin, a general store, and a school with two teachers. The town was bypassed by the railroad in 1909. At that time another Somerset was established by the same people in south Bexar County, and the original settlement became known as Old Somerset. The Old Rock Baptist Church, which was renovated by local refinery workers in 1921, still stood in 1990 to mark the site of Old Somerset.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Atascosa County History (Pleasanton, Texas: Atascosa History Committee, 1984). Margaret G. Clover, The Place Names of Atascosa County (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1952).

Fount A. Rambie, Jr.