FIRST -- Post Office West of Galveston Texas - Industry, TX
Posted by: 
Raven
N 29° 58.727 W 096° 30.235
14R E 740831 N 3319056
A restored 1838 one-room trade store on the grounds of Ernst Memorial Park in the town of Industry, Texas (Austin County) boasting to be the first Post Office in Texas West of Galveston (which was original port into Texas back in those days).
Waymark Code: WM13AE0
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 10/25/2020
Views: 2
A hand-painted sign on this old trade store mentions its "first", which is further confirmed by a Texas historical marker near the 1938 building in question:
Industry Post Office
During Mexican rule of Texas, a post office was established in May of 1830 at San Felipe, the center of Stephen F. Austin's Texas colony. On the Gotier Trace, a road connecting San Felipe to what would become the town of Bastrop, the German family of Johann Friedrich Ernst had settled and established the community of Industry by 1831.
Known as the "Father of German immigration to Texas," Ernst wrote numerous letters to his native Oldenburg, Germany. One, printed in German newspapers, attracted many German immigrants to Texas. The German settlement of Industry grew around Ernst's property, which included his home and a store. Mail coming to area residents was addressed in care of Ernst, who had worked as a postal clerk before coming to America.
By 1838, during the Republic of Texas era, Johann Gottlieb Sieper, Ernst's partner who later became his son-in-law, acted as Industry's first postmaster. In 1840, his position became official. He continued in this capacity after Texas joined the Union, and he remained postmaster until his death in 1855. A few months later, Ernst Knolle became postmaster, and the Industry post office moved to the Knolle store, approximately a half mile east of this site.
The Ernst Store property, long held to be the site of Industry's first post office, remains in the community today as part of Ernst Memorial Park. The restored and stabilized building is a reminder of early Texas settlement and the importance of a mail system to the colonists. Positioned along a route that crossed the early center of Austin's Colony, Industry developed similarly to the rest of the state, with postal service first relying on an individual or small number of residents before evolving into a more established system.
FIRST - Classification Variable: Place or Location
Date of FIRST: 01/01/1838
More Information - Web URL: Not listed
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