PAIGE, TEXAS. Paige is on U.S. Highway 290 forty-four miles east of Austin in northeast Bastrop County. The Old San Antonio Road,^qv now State Highway 21, borders the north side. Paige was established at the site of a railroad water tower on the newly built Houston and Texas Central Railway in 1872 and named for Norman Paige, a civil engineer, who had laid out the route of the railway. In 1874 a post office was established. In 1876 the railway station was moved three miles east to its present location. Fedor Soder arrived in 1877, built a store and a gin, and purchased and sold many town lots to other Germans;^qv the population is still primarily German. In 1884 Paige reported a population of 350 and several businesses, including seven cotton gins. By 1886 the population had reached 500. The town was a railroad shipping center for cotton, cattle, hogs, cordwood, butter, eggs, potatoes, and other produce. It had a pickle factory, creamery, and broom factory. By 1914 Paige had a bank and telephone service, but the population had decreased to 400. In 1941 Paige had an estimated population of 467 and ten businesses. During World War II^qv the population began to decline again, partially as a result of the decrease in cotton production. In 1952 the town reported eight businesses and a population of 220. In 1981 the Hou-Tex Oil Company drilled for gas near Paige and connected its well to the Giddings-Bastrop pipeline. In 1982 a volunteer fire department was established and the Paige Community Center was incorporated. In 1990 Paige reported four businesses and had a population of 275. The population remained the same in 2000.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Doris Goerner Laake, The History of Paige, Texas and Vicinity (Austin: Eakin Press, 1983).

Doris Goerner Laake