St. John Colony, TX

St. John Colony is on Farm Road 672 ten miles northeast of Lockhart in northeastern Caldwell County. It was begun in the early 1870s by a group of black families who came from Webberville with the Rev. John Henry Winn to purchase land. The community was first called Winn's Colony, but after the establishment of St. John Missionary Baptist Church in 1873, its name was changed to St. John Colony. The boundaries of the colony were somewhat nebulous, but it included an area of roughly 2,200 acres. St. John was the name given to the local school district in the 1870s, and it continued to be the focus of a common district until it was consolidated with Lockhart schools in the early 1960s. Residents maintained a school at the community until area public schools were integrated in 1966. The community had three churches in the 1980s, when about forty families lived in the area. In 2000 the population was 150.