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History on a Pinhead
Local
business owner Van Raub Byron became the town namesake in the mid 1880s when it
became a stop on the proposed San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad.
The
following year a church and school were built and the town had its own newspaper.
The population reached 300 and the town received a post office (1889).
The town wasn’t bypassed by the railroad,
but as tracks continued on to Kerrville,
the effect on the community was just as devastating. By 1910 the population had
declined by half and mail came through Boerne.
Van Raub managed to pull through the Great Depression but prosperity did it in.
Increased wages in larger cities lured Van Raubites from their tranquil home.
The town became a virtual ghost until the 1990s when developers built a San Antonio
suburb very near the site of Van Raub called Fair Oaks Ranch.
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Texas | Online
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