SEAWILLOW, TEXAS. Seawillow is near the intersection of Farm roads 197 and 204, six miles southeast of Lockhart in central Caldwell County. The settlement was named for Seawillow Margaret Ann (Pipkin) Wells, who was born under a willow tree in 1855 after her mother was caught in a flood and rescued by family slaves. Seawillow taught school in Lockhart, married, and then moved with her family to the site that, at her husband's suggestion, was named for her. Area children attended a school called Lone Star from the 1880s through 1910, when Seawillow School opened. The school was consolidated with the Glendale common school district after 1922. A post office operated at Seawillow from 1899 until 1903; rural delivery from Lockhart began in 1940. Cotton and grain were the primary products shipped by area farmers before oil was discovered in the county in the 1920s and 1930s. The community faded during the 1940s, and by the 1980s only a few buildings and oil tanks remained at the site. In 2000 the population was 100.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Mark Withers Trail Drive Museum, Historical Caldwell County (Dallas: Taylor, 1984). Plum Creek Almanac, Spring, Fall, 1988.

Vivian Elizabeth Smyrl