Rhineland is at the intersection of Farm roads 2534 and 267, eighty-five miles north of Abilene in southeastern Knox County. It owes its existence to German-born Catholics, Father Joseph R. Reisdorff and Hugo Herchenbach, who persuaded J. C. League in 1895 to set aside 12,000 acres of Knox County ranchland for a German Catholic colony. The settlement was legally established on February 1, 1895, when the land contract was notarized, and was named for the Rhineland in Germany. Reisdorff and Herchenbach started building a colony house in March 1895, but the settlement grew slowly, although the colony was widely advertised as a land for German Catholics. In 1898 the Rhineland Common School District was organized, and during the following year League built the first schoolhouse. A fine brick school building was constructed in 1926 that provided public education through the high school level, though most area grade school children continued to attend the local parochial school. Rhineland increased in population from seventy-five in 1950 to 196 in 1980, but the number of major businesses in the community declined during the period. The town lost its post office, and high school students attended school in Munday. In 1990 the population was still reported at 196. The population dropped to 100 in 2000.
Is history important to you?
We need your support because we are a non-profit organization that relies upon contributions from our community in order to record and preserve the history of our state. Every dollar helps.
Mrs. R. D. Gray, Early Days in Knox County (New York: Carleton, 1963). Knox County History Committee, Knox County History (Haskell, Texas: Haskell Free Press, 1966).
Categories:
-
Peoples
-
Germans
-
Religion
-
Catholic
The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.
Edloe A. Jenkins,
“Rhineland, TX,”
Handbook of Texas Online,
accessed June 25, 2022,
https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/rhineland-tx.
Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
-
Original Publication Date:
-
1952
-
Most Recent Revision Date:
-
May 3, 2019
-
-
Linked Data from the Texas Almanac:
-
Place
-
Rhineland
-
Currently Exists
-
Yes
-
Place Type
-
Town
-
USGS ID
-
1366397
-
Town Fields
-
-
Has post office:
No
-
Is Incorporated:
No
-
Coordinates
-
-
Latitude:
33.52981640°
-
Longitude:
-99.65508660°