Rock Island Connections Colorado County , Texas

Submitted  22 Aug 2000 by Nathan Haley <nathan_haley@hotmail.com>

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http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/index.html

ROCK ISLAND, TEXAS (Colorado County). Rock Island, on U.S. Highway 
90A twelve miles southwest of Columbus in southwest Colorado County, 
was settled in 1896 as part of a land promotion scheme on the Texas 
and New Orleans Railroad. Among the first residents of the community 
were Abram Vorhees, Charles Petersen, and C. S. Penfield. The town's 
original name was Crasco, after nearby Crasco Creek, but in 1897 
the citizens successfully petitioned the post office department 
to change the name. Charles Petersen, a large landowner, renamed the 
town for the Rock Island Railroad Company. In August 1897 Petersen
was appointed the first postmaster of Rock Island, and the old 
Crasco post office was closed. From an original core of thirty-nine 
farming families, the population of Rock Island had grown to 367 
by 1904 and had reached an all-time high of 500 by 1925.

By 1986 the population had dropped to 160, and only eight 
businesses remained. In 1990 the population remained at 160.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Colorado County Sesquicentennial Commemorative Book (La 
Grange, Texas: Hengst
Printing, 1986).