Weches, TX

Weches is at the junction of State Highway 21 and State Park Road 44, in the San Pedro Creek valley near the Neches River twenty-one miles northeast of Crockett in northeastern Houston County. It was founded around 1847 by T. J. Hennin near the site of a large village of Tejas Indians and the San Francisco de los Tejas Mission. Hennin named the settlement Neches after the nearby river. A post office operated under that name from January 1847 to July 1848 and under the name Naches from 1853 until 1882. In 1887 citizens applied for a new post office, but upon finding that the name Neches had been designated for another town, substituted the name Weches. In 1890 Weches had a steam gristmill and cotton gin, a general store, a Baptist church, and an estimated population of 100. The population reached an estimated 400 in 1896, and by 1900 the town also had a Methodist church and a Church of Christ. Weches continued to prosper during the 1910s and 1920s, but in the early 1930s the population began to decline. In 1936 the town had 150 inhabitants and four businesses. After World War II many of the residents moved away, and by the early 1970s Weches had dwindled to a population of twenty-six and no businesses. Through 2000 Weches still had twenty-six inhabitants and no businesses. By 2010 Weches had an estimated population of forty-six.